Congressman Introduces Bill Criminalizing Products Designed To “Defraud” Drug Tests

Washington, DC: Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY), along with Reps. Peter Defazio (D-OR), Jean Schmidt (R-OH) and Lee Terry (R-NE), has introduced legislation in Congress to criminalize the production and sale of any commercial products intended to influence drug test results, such as diuretic teas or chemical adulterants. The bill, H.R. 858, is now before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

As introduced, the proposal would “prohibit the manufacture, marketing, sale, or shipment in interstate commerce of products designed … to produce a false or misleading outcome of a test for the presence of a controlled substance.”

More than a dozen states have enacted similar laws.

Of the tens of millions of workplace drug tests performed annually in the United States, an estimated 90 percent are urine tests, which may be influenced by dilution or adding an adulterant to the sample. Over the past decade, numerous commercial businesses have marketed commercial products promising to influence drug test results, including herbal teas and substitute urine.

via Congressman Introduces Bill Criminalizing Products Designed To “Defraud” Drug Tests – NORML.

Sad to see one of my own Oregon Congressmen introducing this (sadder still to see him teaming up with “Mean Jean” Schmidt of Ohio!), but Oregon is one of the states with a similar law.  This makes for brisk business across the state line in Vancouver, Washington, where a certain headshop owner advertises, “Hey, Portland, I got what you’re looking for…” on late-night mixed-martial arts TV shows.

This sort of legislation won’t have much effect, by the way.  I don’t know how you criminalize a diuretic tea – even here in Oregon we have “health detoxifier” products, not meant to be used to flush your body of any detectable metabolites, no sir, but only for personal well-being, you see, wink wink, nudge nudge.  Lawry’s Adolph’s Meat Tenderizer makes an excellent adulterant for carboxy-THC (THC-COOH) – will your crusade rid us of tender juicy beefsteak?  Cranberry juice is a good way to flush your system – are you going to put those two guys in the cranberry bog out of work, too?  Then there’s always your clean friend or relative willing to supply you with some pee.  Will pee trading become criminalized?

Just do the right thing and end workplace drug testing altogether.  They are doing nothing to create a truly drug-free workplace:

According to the federal Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), seventy percent of illicit drug users age 18 to 49 are employed full time.

So long as you have OTC remedies in every receptionist’s desk, three-martini lunches for the execs, and smokers’ shelters for the line, your workplace ain’t drug free anyway. 

These urine tests’ primary accomplishment is identifying marijuana users, because the hard drugs’ metabolites are water-soluble and flush out of your system within a couple of days, but marijuana’s metabolites are fat-soluble and stay in your system for days or weeks.

Recent drug testing data compiled by Quest Diagnostics indicate that more than 60 percent of all positive workplace drug tests are for marijuana only. Because urine tests detect a metabolized by-product of marijuana and not the drug itself, pot-smokers may test positive days or even weeks after using it. By comparison, cocaine – the second most commonly detected drug – typically will wash out of the system within 48 hours.

So this weekend’s pot smoker will be out of a job if you test him next Friday, but this weekend’s crack smoker will pee clean by Tuesday.  The only thing you accomplish with a pre-employment drug metabolite test is finding a pot smoker who can quit for a couple of weeks or beat your urine screen.

A 1994 study by the National Academy of Sciences concluded, “Despite beliefs to the contrary, … [there exists] no evidence from properly controlled studies that employment drug testing programs widely discourage drug use or encourage rehabilitation.”

Trust me on this one – once that negative pee test is revealed and the job offer is signed, we’re blazing one up that night in celebration.

Marijuana users are safer, more responsible, better-educated, more productive, more loyal employees than the ones who drink, trust me (we don’t call in sick with hangovers) – many small firms got my skills at a bargain simply because they respected my privacy.

In addition, a 1998 study by the Le Moyne College Institute of Industrial Relations of 63 “high-tech” firms found that pre-employment and random drug screening procedures resulted in a significant loss of worker productivity and appeared to create “a negative work environment” for employees.

There are some jobs I had when I was younger, like field work, dishwashing, and burger flipper, where I think productivity would increase if the workforce could take toke breaks.  Sometimes it may be the only way to summon enough dignity to put on the paper hat and nametag.