Can your Doctor do a drug test without telling you?

Bottom line is that you should inform EVERY doctor you visit of EVERY medication you are taking including OTC's, herbals, "natural"remedies, and illicit drugs. Many drugs can cause false positives and drug panels are not usually test specific unless it's for a specialty item. Your doctor WILL get the results of the full standard panel.
It's for your own health and protection.

Yes, they can whenever n as many times as they want per federal law (at least that is how it is u here in northwestern PA) when prescribed narcotics. But if u have a legal marijuana card they should not b able 2 to stop ur meds. Is this the same dr that help u get the marijuana card? If not n they don't know u r getting it legally then they can stop prescribing u ur pain meds! You should probably make an appointment with ur dr that prescribes ur pain meds n show them that u get it legally n hopefully u can get ur pain meds back! Up here in northwestern PA it I very difficult 2 find a dr that is willing 2 prescribe u any pain meds not even Tramadol!!

Best of luck n I hope ts helps u!!

I am reading all these questions and answers for a completely different personal reason.
But I decided to register and create an account when I didn’t read an accurate answer.
As a registered nurse for 20 years and as of 2 years ago well a traveling pharmaceutical representative part time. While maintaining my anonymity I can with 100% accuracy answer all these questions. Clearly not everyone understands the reason why for all of this nonsense is because ALL of the top pharmaceutical companies (only 3 of them rule) share holder’s ONLY have one concern. Their stocks that grow daily at a mind-blowing rate. Therefore to continue this lavish lifestyles they, pay it forward if you will, billions of dollars in to the campaign financing of the upper level Politicians (policy makers) on the federal as well as the state level. Therefore the only time anything will change is when all the pharmaceutical companies are successful in bottling marijuana

Updating this thread. I am in my early 60s and due to a sudden job loss, I was forced to switch health plans for the third time in one year. This time I had to switch to a medicaid program until employed again (and hopefully will have an employer plan again! No guarantees anymore). I signed up with a local clinic my plan covers and went in for my first appointment. The staff and provider were nice, but it’s essentially a factory-like operation, with short appointments even for the first one, which in the old days was a long one for the physician to meet you and fully assess you. When I received the results from lab work done that day I discovered I’d been tested for alcohol without my knowledge! I don’t drink alcohol, I don’t smoke cigarettes, I don’t smoke marijuana, I didn’t ask for any narcotics, and I don’t take narcotics. So why was I tested for alcohol without my knowledge? I feel offended by it and now I don’t really trust the provider.

Most likely, when you first put yourself under that Dr's care, you signed a bunch of papers.. and if you're like most people, you signed most things without really reading them thoroughly, if at all.. well amongst those papers was probably a pain management contract, and in most standard contracts you agree not to take other drugs, illegal or otherwise, without disclosing it to them first. Also in that contract it states they can refuse treatment for any reason they see fit.

Pain management is a tricky field for both doctors and patients, both parties need to be very careful because the DEA is constantly scrutinizing everything you do. I know because I have been under PM care for over 4 years... I am aware of every and out and it is confusing!!

My advice is to go back and read your contract (it is probably publicly available on their web site ) and then have an open and honest conversation with your doc addressing your concerns and any miscommunication or misunderstanding.

Good luck!

I can only sympathize with you. I live in N.Y., and we haven't even caught up enough to find doctors who will prescribe the use of marijuana for pain. I just received the form letter in the mail stating that I must sign the release allowing random drug testing or I will be dismissed as a patient. I thought the last 20 years has been about recognition of lessening patient pain! Now there are pharmacies (Walgreen) where the pharmacist can decide on his own to override your prescription written by a doctor because he decides he doesn't want to fill it, you have physicians forcing you to choose pain over quality of life. We're not Michael Jackson! We're looking for relief from chronic pain that basically rules our lives. It makes me want to call Hospice the way my brother had to and just put myself in their hands and trust them to have the human compassion that we're no longer finding in the physicians we've trusted our lives to for years.

with Kaiser they now do pain--management-contracts. If you have a long term prescription you Must to sign this in order to keep getting the prescription. In that contract it states that they can drug test you any time. I had to do this too. But you should have told you Kaiser doc about the Red Card. You need to be honest with your doc about everything your taking, otherwise they have the right to not give you a narcotic prescription. Talk to your doc privately, and in person, and they should understand. And if not, then you need a doc who does. Chronic pain is a real disease, make sure you have someone there to help you with it.

You ok'd a urine drug test and when they do a urine drug test, they will test for everything, not just the drug you are taking. They want to know that you ARE taking the drug prescribed, but they also want to know if you are taking unprescribed or illegal drugs. Here is the thing about medical marijuana. It may be legalized by the state, but it is still illegal according to federal law. Federal law trumps state law in all cases. Also, according to my pain docs in AZ (where MJ is legal for medical use too), they have stated that they uphold federal law and do not recommend medical marijuana along with opioids since their are no adequate studies that mixing the two is advisable. It states the same in my pain contract. I have to pick either to be treated by opioids or to be treated by a medical MJ doc, not both. You may be able to find a pain doc in CA that will support the use of both but you will find that many dont. They are watched too closely by the DEA and according to federal law marijuana is illegal.

If you are legitimatly on medical marijuana I don't see how he can do that. Doesn't a doc have to prescribe it? The only thing is if he didn't prescribe it it looks like you're doctor shopping for scripts. I wish it was legal everywhere, Its the only thing that helps my pain.

Yes, they do what they damn well please.

Yes, when I went to Joel Saper's Neurological Institute in Ann Arbor, MI, they said they were doing blood testing, but tested for everything, including opiates which I had already told them that I was taking. People from all over the country go there. It was a total RIP OFF in my opinion.

So yes, there are doctors that will test you for things that you have no idea about. I have never run into this at any of my other 4 neurologists and headache specialist at a different facility.

Stormy,
When you gave the doc a urine specimen, I think the PM doc can test for anything. Maybe the issue is that he/she didn't write for medicinal marijuana. I do know that pain docs have specific guidelines to follow and would like to keep the DEA off of their back, at least in Florida where I am. Other than that, can't hazard a guess.
Peace and less hassles,
Laura