Medication and driving

[Markyboy1008]

Without going into too much detail, I suffer from a bad back and have been on medication for quite sometime.
My current meds are Tramadol, Gabapentin and Amitriptyline, all of which I self medicate now with the GP's blessing. I have been on these for may years and have no side effects that impair my driving. These were stated at my last medical, with no issues.

My main concern is that I am thinking of going for another position with a company, I know they get you to take the drug and alcohol test.
I don't drink or use any recreational drugs so have no worries with that, BUT I am concerned if I will get flagged up with using Tramadol. It is after all an opiate. Does anyone know what sort of quantities you would need to take to be a problem, both for this test and the drugalyser?

Thanks in advance.

[Beetlejuice]

Just tell the firm what you said above.i cannot see a problem .

[kcrussell25]

If you're serious about the job do as above. They might want to write to your GP to confirm what your saying but if you have passed the medical taking them I can't see an issue

[DrPhilThornley]

Yes, it is definitely possible that the tramadol would show up on a drug test. The gabapentin and the amitriptyline would not. However, plenty of people have a drug test which shows positive for some legitimate medication. Generally the first-level drug test which is done might be a urine test. These tests are good at picking up substances but not precise at saying what the substance is. For example lots of legitimate medicines such as codeine painkillers will test positive on the opiate test but it doesn't mean the person is taking something they shouldn't be.
At that point the company should arrange for a second level test done in a laboratory which is much more expensive and only done if the first screening test shows up something. This test will identify which particular substance is present. At this stage it will become clear that it is tramadol in your case and so long as you have declared that in advance and so long as the quantity of tramadol showing up on the test matches someone who is taking a proper prescribed amount, then you will be in the clear.
Unfortunately sometimes people end up being suspended from work for a day or two until the result of the laboratory test comes back.
You need to remember that there is nothing illegal about taking proper prescribed drugs in the right dosage even if they are something which shows up as a positive test. It's just important that you can prove you're taking them legitimately.
Of course in your case, it is possible that the company might be concerned about you doing a safety critical job if you are taking all of those three medicines which can potentially be sedating. Most of the bus and the logistics companies we work for would routinely refer you to us for an assessment if you were driving on that medication, although provided we were satisfied that the person wasn't having harmful side-effects we wouldn't generally stop them from driving on the medication.
When we are doing a routine DVLA driver's medical the main thing we want to know about when someone is taking strong medication is whether it affects their safety and concentration, rather than the actual name of the substance.
Hope this helps.