This post is a plea for help to try and get some answers. My son recently tested positive for marijuana on his employment physical for an air charter service. He is adamant that he has not had any exposure to since his early college years. He rarely drinks and he refused to take the cold medicine his RN mom suggested he take. He took the test on a Friday and was notifed on Monday AM. He immediately took another test Monday PM which was clean and to be sure he took two more tests from two other labs that also came back clean. Unfortunately, the restest of the first test came back positive as well.
The bizarre thing is that he was on an orientation flight on Saturday as a ride along, and his trainer got a call from the charter service that his test came back clean. The charter let him fly the rest of the trip as an FO. He has the logs and other documentation to prove it. On Monday AM he was on his way to the airport to fly when he got a call from the MRO telling him. We had an attorney write a letter to the MRO and charter service and got the documentation related to the test, and if we are reading it correctly amount of thc in the samples inital test was below the allowed amount of thc allowed by the FAA,but for some reason the sample was run through the more gas chromatigraph and it failed. The MRO swears he never called the airline and the airline swears that someone did. My understanding is that if the test is clean the lab calls;if it is dirty the MRO calls. I am quickly becoming an expert on the testing process, and I have come to the conclusion that(1) my son is a liar and an idiot that 30 days prior to the day he was notified that he tested positive he smoked a joint or ate something with hemp in it (otherwise the test on Monday would have been dirty as well)or (2)some how the samples were mishandeled or tampered with in the lab. I have talked to a couple of experts that have told me this happens a lot more often than it should.
This isn't about a kid being afraid of pissing of his parents. If he had told me Dad I screwed up,his mom and I would have been just as supportive. Prior to getting the job offer from the air charter service we had talked about buying an FBO and starting an air charter service and flight school. Fortunately I have the financial resources to help him, and once he goes through the process to get his medical re-instated we will probably move forward. This is more about clearing my sons name and getting a flawed system fixed so this doesn't happen to one of you.
This has been weighing on me even more heavily since 30 years ago when I was a company commander in the Marine ,my company Gunnery Sergeant tested positive on a random drug screen, and I had to administratively discharge him. He was three years short of retirement, and I nor any of my other NCO's believed he had smoked dope. He wasn't that kind of guy. I tried fighting it, but the legal officers told me that the tests were " fool proof", and I had to do my duty. Maybe I didn't fight hard enough ,and this is karmic payback. I wish it had been me rather than my kid.
Any information on attorneys that specialize in these types of cases or any other information on similar cases you think might be helpful would be greatly appreciated.
The bizarre thing is that he was on an orientation flight on Saturday as a ride along, and his trainer got a call from the charter service that his test came back clean. The charter let him fly the rest of the trip as an FO. He has the logs and other documentation to prove it. On Monday AM he was on his way to the airport to fly when he got a call from the MRO telling him. We had an attorney write a letter to the MRO and charter service and got the documentation related to the test, and if we are reading it correctly amount of thc in the samples inital test was below the allowed amount of thc allowed by the FAA,but for some reason the sample was run through the more gas chromatigraph and it failed. The MRO swears he never called the airline and the airline swears that someone did. My understanding is that if the test is clean the lab calls;if it is dirty the MRO calls. I am quickly becoming an expert on the testing process, and I have come to the conclusion that(1) my son is a liar and an idiot that 30 days prior to the day he was notified that he tested positive he smoked a joint or ate something with hemp in it (otherwise the test on Monday would have been dirty as well)or (2)some how the samples were mishandeled or tampered with in the lab. I have talked to a couple of experts that have told me this happens a lot more often than it should.
This isn't about a kid being afraid of pissing of his parents. If he had told me Dad I screwed up,his mom and I would have been just as supportive. Prior to getting the job offer from the air charter service we had talked about buying an FBO and starting an air charter service and flight school. Fortunately I have the financial resources to help him, and once he goes through the process to get his medical re-instated we will probably move forward. This is more about clearing my sons name and getting a flawed system fixed so this doesn't happen to one of you.
This has been weighing on me even more heavily since 30 years ago when I was a company commander in the Marine ,my company Gunnery Sergeant tested positive on a random drug screen, and I had to administratively discharge him. He was three years short of retirement, and I nor any of my other NCO's believed he had smoked dope. He wasn't that kind of guy. I tried fighting it, but the legal officers told me that the tests were " fool proof", and I had to do my duty. Maybe I didn't fight hard enough ,and this is karmic payback. I wish it had been me rather than my kid.
Any information on attorneys that specialize in these types of cases or any other information on similar cases you think might be helpful would be greatly appreciated.
