Are sleep meds legal to take?

All the company can do is fire you for not telling them. It's legal if a DOT Doctor prescribes it. I would stay away from Ambien. It's really dangerous when you wake up. I've used it and I know I couldn't drive if I took the night before. That's me and everyone is different. But I have taken PM's throughout the years and never had a problem with it. Just remember that a truck driving job requires you to be wide awake. You might scare off the company if they find out and most of the time they do. Talk to the doctor and your company and ask them how they feel about this. It's much better to ask than to explain after something happens.

 

Regular Nyquil has alcohol in it, you cannot legally have it in the truck.

 

I am lucky, 2 regular tylenol knock me out for 10 hours

 

yeah, that's what Benadryl is for. Zonk........

 

Codeine will cause a positive for opiates on a DOT drug test and even if you have an RX, this is a prohibited medication to have in your system. Notifying the carrier is just gonna get you in deeper, don't take it or don't have it in your system while driving.

 

Regular sleeping pills prescribed by your doctor are completely legal and have no opiates, so you can't fail a drug test. I have generic Ambien and have had them for years. They are listed on the drug sheet I filled out for my employer and they haven't said anything about it. I run mostly nights so I have to get to sleep in the daytime when the truck stops are most active. For me they only work for about 4-5 hours and then I'm completely (wired) awake. Different people have different reactions, so you should try it at home on your time off first.

 

You can't get in trouble if you still have residuals in your system if they whiz quiz you after you come back. If you told them, like you are supposed to. Werner sat me down for 3 days after I had my wisdom tooth pulled since I was given Lortab. They randomed me the following week and couldn't say squat about the opiate residuals in my test results since I had email proof I had notified the company prior.

 

the active ingredient in lortab--the narcotic--is hydrocodone. Hydrocodone will not show up on a 5 panel DOT test. the metabolite is too chemically different to cause a positive for opiates. driving under the influence of it would still be illegal however. codeine on the other hand, is in the classification of narcotics that will show up as a heroin/morphine metabolite and will cause a positive result on a dot drug test.

with that in mind, the company would be in no place to reprimand an employee using a prescribed substance, which would not cause a positive on a DOT drug test.

 

Are you making this up or do you have a reference? I only ask because this is the reference I see, FMCSR's 391.41 (12) (ii). I fully agree that no one should be driving a CMV on any substance that may degrade safety. But someone that is under the care of a doctor and that doctor is fully qualified to prescribe a medication that is a narcotic should be free of any prejudices or punishment if he or she follows the written laws.

I was on vacation and I had a tooth go bad and the dentist gave me codeine. After I got back I was tested and came up positive for codeine and the company did the right thing. They had an outside doctor that was the administrator of our program call me and ask what I did. I told him and he directed me to show the prescription bottle to the terminal supervisor before my next shift and I was good to go. I'm sure a major oil company with a driver hauling tons of gasoline is going to follow the rules and laws. But I also knew from the military on how the collection process should go and what to tell or not tell the collector. My suggestion to everyone is to read the laws and assume nothing when it comes to these tests. Do not take anyone's word for a procedure unless they have the reference to back up what they are saying. However, it's everyone's own career and do as you like.

 

http://www.justanswer.com/drug-testing/7kj17-prescription-hydrocodone-dot.html#re.v/416/

This is about as reliable of a reference as I can give you ,and apologies for linking to an outside website. The basic principle behind this is that hydrocodone is too chemically different to cause a positive on a DOT drug test. A standard UA will show this substance, but DOT is very specific in that it only tests for 5 substances; opiates being one of them. Codeine, is the prototype opiate. It will show as a positive for heroin. It is a naturally-occurring opiate found in the poppy plant. But hydrocodone, or vicodin, will not show a positive result on the DOT test specifically; the metabolites are too chemically different, and hydrocodone is an opioid (synthetic, lab-created) whereas codeine is a naturally-occurring opiate . I guess what I'm trying to say is that this is a very technical aspect of the DOT drug test. The metabolite of hydrocodone specifically, cannot be identified on a DOT drug test.

On that note, a company drug test that's not just a DOT drug test, will show this substance. And a company may adopt any policy they like about these drugs. It is still prohibited to drive under the influence of this substance and is still a bad idea to have the metabolites in your system if you are driving.