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Drug Testing Detox Products

The prevalence of drug testing in the American workplace has spawned a cottage industry of products designed to avoid dirty results.

Everything from clean samples of urine to masking agents and an anatomically correct delivery device called the Whizzinator can be purchased on the Internet for less than $200.

Opponents of these products claim they are a threat to the workplace and public safety.

It's immoral to have someone sell devices or products intended to defeat what ought to be a positive social activity, said Dr. William George, director of the Tulane University Drug Analysis Laboratory. I'm not a Puritan. I'm a guy who has done his share of things as a young man. But we're trying to keep a safe workplace and discourage workers from using drugs, he said.

Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., introduced the Drug Testing Integrity Act of 2005 on June 13. The bill targets Internet sales by prohibiting the manufacture, marketing, sale or shipment in interstate commerce of products designed to assist in defrauding a drug test.

Industry experts said it is a start but will do little to end the cat-and-mouse game between drug testers and those who want to avoid a positive result.

Nobody really knows how big this industry is, said Melissa Moskal, executive director of the Drug and Alcohol Testing Industry Association based in Alexandria, Va. All we do know is these products have become more sophisticated and as soon as toxicology labs find out about them, the technology changes. People used to just bring in bleach or Visine to beat the tests but now you have synthetic urine and the Whizzinator.

Drug testing is a $620 million industry with nearly 62 percent of 503 U.S. companies surveyed testing in some way in 2004, according to the American Management Association, a nonprofit executive training organization based in New York. More than 12 million employees in safety-sensitive positions such as truck drivers, airline pilots, mass transit operators and mariners are subject to mandatory drug testing under the Department of Transportation guidelines.

The proliferation of drug testing programs led to the rise of masking agents sold on the Internet and in head shops such as the Herb Import Co. and Mary Jane's Emporium in New Orleans.

These stores sell products such as afterBurner Shampoo, which cleans hair follicles of toxins for five days. One kit sells for $110.

The Quick Fix Synthetic Urine provides clean urine samples for $30 and the $200 KokoPelliandSpike detox kit claims to clean the toxins from blood, urine and saliva.

At the Web site Ureasmaple.com, an elaborate system is sold that includes 3 feet of tubing, two chemical heat pads to maintain the proper temperature of the urine and as much as 4 ounces of clean urine for $70.

People will do anything to avoid a positive drug test, said Jeffrey Mendler, manager of toxicology at Tulane University. Mendler said he once witnessed a woman smuggle a clean urine sample into a bathroom stall where she attempted to warm the sample to the medically required temperature using a cigarette lighter.

When she comes out of bathroom the bottom of the cup is charred black and she still had the lighter in her hand, Mendler said. So she handed this steaming urine to our technician who said she couldn't accept it. The lady's response was, 'What do you mean you can't accept it? That's all the urine I brought.'

The most common drug test is urinalysis, which costs an average of $30 per test followed by the $100 hair follicle test.

Hair tests are more accurate and can detect drugs in a person's system up to 90 days after the drug has been ingested. They are commonly used in child custody and court-ordered drug tests.

Urine tests can detect drugs only while they remain in a person's system. Heroin is detectable in urine for only six hours after ingestion, cocaine for two to four days and marijuana for up to several weeks.

Drug tests most commonly find narcotics such as marijuana and cocaine although positive methamphetamine results surged last year, said Ron Balash, owner of the New Orleans drug testing firm BAL & Associates, which charges up to $50 an hour for onsite testing.

The most common way people attempt to dodge a drug test is by bringing in clean urine, Balash said. The next most popular method would be adulterating the sample by putting bleach, salt or vinegar into it, though most laboratories can now detect such tampering.

Many employers drug test their work force to lessen insurance liabilities and access discounts insurance companies offer employers using such a program, Mendler said.

If you fell at work and broke your leg, for the most part workers comp will take care of you, he said. But if your job drug tests, after the accident now you get tested, and if the test is positive the onus is on you to prove that your impairment didn't cause the accident.

Mendler advises his clients to perform pre-employment, random, post-accident and probable-cause drug tests.

Paula Brantner, program director for Workplace Fairness, a nonprofit advocacy group based in San Francisco, said the use of drug tests is actually decreasing.

In 1996, 81 percent of 961 companies surveyed drug tested their employees, according to the American Management Association. That number dipped to 66 percent in 2000 and 62 percent in 2004.

Employers are abandoning it because the number of people they screened out wasn't worth the investment, Brantner said. Some found it didn't make sense to spend as much as $10,000 to weed out one person.

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