cannabisnews.com: Bill Would Ban Products To Cheat Drug Tests





Bill Would Ban Products To Cheat Drug Tests
Posted by CN Staff on February 07, 2007 at 07:44:06 PT
By Justin Anderson, Daily Mail Staff 
Source: Charleston Daily Mail
West Virginia -- A labor-backed bill working its way through the Legislature would criminalize the sale and use of products made to help people mask illicit drug use to pass a test.An opponent says the measure would cause an underground proliferation of these products and increase the use of other drugs not easily detected during screenings.
The Senate passed the bill on a 32-0 vote Monday with two absences, and it was introduced Tuesday in the House of Delegates. It's now set for review by the House Judiciary Committee. The legislation would make it a misdemeanor for anyone to knowingly sell, give away, distribute or market products meant to help people pass drug tests. Anyone who used these products to submit a false sample also would be committing a crime. Such products aimed at covering up drug use are currently legal.Senate Judiciary Chairman Jeff Kessler, D-Marshall, the lead sponsor, said officials with the Affiliated Construction Trades Foundation lobbied for the bill as a workplace safety measure."They want to make sure they're working with folks who have all their faculties and facilities about them," Kessler said. "They thought it was something that needed to be done."Gov. Joe Manchin has called workplace safety one of the priorities in his legislative agenda this year. He vowed to require every applicant for a job in the executive branch to undergo drug testing, and he called on the judicial and legislative branches and all the state's constitutional officers to do the same.Manchin's initiative was intended as a show of support to state businesses that complain they're having a hard time finding drug-free workers to hire.The proposed bill seems to have support from that same community. Kessler said the bill so far has received no opposition from other senators, and he doesn't expect much of a challenge from the House. He said he also doesn't anticipate any successful legal opposition."I think that everybody recognizes that when people show up at work, they need to be fit to work," he said.The bill would make a first offense for selling or using the drug-masking products punishable by a fine of up to $1,000. A second offense would merit a $5,000 fine, and a third offense, still a misdemeanor, could mean a $10,000 fine and a year in jail.Kessler said he has learned that the sale and use of these products is becoming more common. They are widely available on the Internet.The bill specifies 15 chemicals that, if found at unusual levels in samples submitted for drug testing, would trigger a false reading. Included in the list are bleach, iodine, detergent, potassium nitrate -- commonly found in smoke bombs -- and sodium nitrite, which can be used as a food additive.Also on the list is creatinine, which is a breakdown product of creatine found in muscle tissue. High levels of creatinine in urine can also indicate muscular dystrophy, according to the National Institute of Health.Certain products containing these ingredients are being manufactured and marketed specifically for people who want to cover illicit drug use during a urine test or drug screening. A 2005 report from the federal General Accounting Office seemed to indicate it will be an uphill battle for lawmakers to control the sale and use of such products."The sheer number of these products, and the ease with which they are marketed and distributed through the Internet, present formidable obstacles to the integrity of the drug testing process," the report said.Fourteen states already have made the products illegal, the report found. However, in 2005, only one state, South Carolina, had ever prosecuted anyone for the offense. Illinois and Kentucky have made the offense a felony. In South Carolina and North Carolina, a first offense is a misdemeanor and any repeat offense is a felony.Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said the laws might be moving in the wrong direction. He called the overall push for more pre-employment drug testing "psychopharmacological McCarthyism," referring to former Senator Joseph McCarthy's communist witch-hunt in the 1940s and 1950s."What we really need in this country is impairment testing," he said. "In the end, that's what really matters in the workplace."St. Pierre said that about the time drug testing became vogue in the 1980s, so did the proliferation of products meant to defeat it. Chemists and engineers who worked for the drug-testing firms developed a lot of the products, he said, and the market for them is huge.St. Pierre said at least 27 million Americans use marijuana on some level and about half of Americans are subjected to drug testing for employment.Marijuana use can show up in a person's urine as many as 90 days after it was last used, he said.Bills meant to crack down on products aimed at masking such drug use won't just have an effect on "head shops" and faceless Internet firms, St. Pierre said. Products that can cleanse the body of drug metabolites prior to drug testing can also be found at health supplement chains in shopping malls, local co-ops and health food stores, he said.Contact writer Justin D. Anderson at 348-4843. Source: Charleston Daily Mail (WV)Author: Justin Anderson, Daily Mail Staff Published: Wednesday, February 07, 2007Copyright: 2007 Charleston Daily MailContact: editor dailymail.comWebsite: http://www.dailymail.com/NORMLhttp://www.norml.org/CannabisNews Drug Testing Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/drug_testing.shtml
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Comment #16 posted by ChristenMitchell on February 07, 2007 at 21:30:56 PT:
Inventive
I've got a very sharp young friend who used this method to avoid a UA. Her state came up and she was temporarily hot, so she hacked the answering machine. She switched the recorded message to the no UA's today message. The code was 1234.
Hemptopia
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Comment #15 posted by OverwhelmSam on February 07, 2007 at 15:51:25 PT
What are they going to do about water?
Man, talk about pissing in the wind. Most people just dilute with water and supplement with salt, aspirin and vitamins a few days before the whiz quiz. Are they going to ban water and aspirin? 
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Comment #14 posted by nuevo mexican on February 07, 2007 at 13:31:50 PT
Read the last few paragraphs,...for more insight!
Skip to the last few paragraphs, the opening statements regarding his grammar are there to get his message out, regardless of his punctuation and ability to spell.
What he says is what Stick or my Vet buddies say, war is horrible, and bush is unstoppable until we force Congress to stop him.Joe Lieberman is on CNN defending the bush 'surge to kill',
I think that election was stolen too, as the total for his opponent was EXACTLY the same as the last election, (see the bradblog.com) what else would explain the bush twin to be in office, and in our face, on CNN, as though he has ANY credibility, and is a representative of anyone but the corporate agenda. Joe helped bush steal the election from Al Gore, and is a Republican plant, as are many Democrats, as well can all see so easily with the last vote in Congress!From adam at dailykos.com
My family doesnt no how to talk to me and i spend everyday putting together the pieces to a puzzle that is politics.I need to no why i was there,and why my fallen friends where there.I need to no.What in my Presidents mind made this worth it?What the hell makes it worth it now?You see troops on TV but they dont show you the dead ones.Its not just a freakin smoking boot ill tell you that.Its the most horrific thing ive ever been apart of.I love my country and defending what she stands for,but damn.What do you do when its over?When your coutry no longer needs you and talks to you like your a freakin nut because they didnt see the same crap i did.I dont want the damn pity people just a place to talk.Thats all.Nothing more or less.Beleiev what you will about me but please dont question who i am.No one would lie and say there me,trust me.Im 25 years old.This will be with me for the rest of my life.Dont you see what that means?Ive been asking since i started this with you guys.Who's paying the price?I want you guys to think and act for change.So your kids never see half a person that use to talk and think and move and laugh.This is your f* cking troll who cant spell or type.Its been nice to meet you but lets not push what doesnt matter which is who i am.2 and 3 times men and women have been over there.THIS IS THE DAMN WAR AND WHAT IT DOES TO PEOPLE.The Iraqis arent the only victims here.I was there and i wish i never was.YOU DONT FAKE THIS KINDA SHIT.Dont you see that.I have to sleep now.Dont feel guilty or say your sorry for anything.Keep being cautious but dammit have some respect.i dont just miss Specialist Fredrick,Cpt. Jansky,or Sgt Eckert and 25 some odd others that i no.
I miss Adam as well .........he's dead too.PS-Sorry about the typo's.........
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/2/7/52341/64130
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Comment #13 posted by FoM on February 07, 2007 at 13:23:48 PT
Sam Adams
I have great respect for our soldiers. They are the ones that risk their lives for our country. It really breaks my heart when our young soldiers are sent into harms way for a war that was avoidable. I have seen Veterans at the VA Hospitals I've been to and they are so kind and polite. They are good men and women. 
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Comment #12 posted by sam adams on February 07, 2007 at 13:18:37 PT
finding the enemy
FOM, I don't know how they do it. It must be incredibly frustrating. I doubt I could do it. Our soldiers have my utmost respect.
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Comment #11 posted by FoM on February 07, 2007 at 12:56:35 PT
Sam Adams 
Yes he was in Vietnam from 69 to 71. I met him when he was home about a year. We talked a lot about Vietnam. He took many pictures and I learned a lot about Vietnam from him. In Vietnam no one knew who was the enemy. In Iraq they do not know who is the enemy either. How can a soldier fight a war when you don't know who the enemy is? 
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Comment #10 posted by ekim on February 07, 2007 at 12:53:26 PT
Lou Dobbs 
if anyone would like to read part of the transcript with 
Leap please see blog site
http://blog.leap.cc/
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Comment #9 posted by Sam Adams on February 07, 2007 at 12:44:05 PT
FOM
Wow, I didn't know your husband was a viet nam vet, I'm glad he made it back OK.I've only talked to one guy that I know who was actually in the war in Iraq. He was gung ho at the beginning (Navy), but returned very frustrated & hating Bush/Cheney.He was angry that the Americans over there are risking everything to help the Iraqis, and he felt that most of them (Iraqis) were totally ungrateful. He said that they all hated Americans for being greedy and materialistic, and then he said that all the Iraqis try to do is to get as much money & other stuff from the Americans that they can, while their friends are simultaneously fighting our guys.I fear that just like Viet Nam, it's going to be a bad situation all around. In the end, nobody will be better off for all the suffering, except the defense contractors and others who took some of the 363 tons of our cash.I'm currently trying to look on the bright side, if there is one. Bush/Cheney's wrecking of the Middle East may be the catalyst that puts the Republicans out of power. It looks like the result may be that the Democrats put an end to our terrible global warming pollution much sooner than otherwise would have occurred.  Maybe we'll all to get to have food & water & live longer as a result. I sure hope there's a silver lining in there somewhere, for someone.
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on February 07, 2007 at 12:20:58 PT
Sam Adams 
My husband did two tours in Vietnam and we talked about the brain trauma of Vietnam Vets and Vets from Iraq. In the jungle you had trees and greenery to help with the close explosions but in Iraq there is nothing but buildings that compound the concussion from an explosion. We will have way more brain injuries from Iraq then Vietnam in my opinion.
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Comment #7 posted by Sam Adams on February 07, 2007 at 12:11:11 PT
great article
FOM - I was just reading an article in National Geographic, not this month, one of the last few, on the medical technology being used in Iraq. Apparently, there is a plague of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) among injured vets. It's a head injury that happens to your brain without skull injury. i.e., a bomb goes off under your car, and your brain slams again the inside of the skull. It's hard to detect, but many of them will be permanently disable for life. It changes your personality, and makes simple thinking about things like what to have for lunch very difficult..I just found an on-line article on it, very scary:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11882164/site/newsweek/War is so engrained in our culture. In public school, I was taught that the only thing that pulled the US out of the Great Depression was World War II. The slaves were freed by the Civil War!In reality, Lincoln laid waste to half of our country, with hundreds of thousands or millions of military and civilian deaths. Just imagine what the men who lived were like. What was it like for a woman to have her husband come back from 4 years of the Civil War. What was it like for Indians to face Civil War veterans out West.  The Civil War was the most ridiculous and horrible waste of human suffering for almost nothing. The poor black people still remained as virtual slaves until the 50's and 60's, 100 years later.But Lincoln is supposed to be Our Hero for "preserving the union". Great! Now the DEA can beat down medical MJ patients in all 50 states instead of only 25 or 30.
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on February 07, 2007 at 12:00:52 PT
Sam Adams
I know what you mean. Now we are hearing about a lady astronaut that went a little out in left field. I wonder how our soldiers are doing in battle today?
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Comment #5 posted by Sam Adams on February 07, 2007 at 11:51:35 PT
Protest
It's interesting, I heard in the news that the recent anti-war protest was bigger than any protest of the Viet Nam war.Maybe the difference is the mass media. They all reported anti-war stuff like crazy during Viet Nam. Now, they report on white women that have been attacked, or missing children in North Dakota. Anything with white women or girls crying. In other words, sensationalism.I had a sick feeling all during the OJ trial that something was horribly wrong. That the entire country could be so brainwashed into obsession over an incredibly boring months-long trial about someone they never met, or even cared about, before the murder.But then it was over and memories of it faded away. Until 9/11. Then, the machine that was fine-tuned with OJ was turned into a propaganda machine. It's not so harmless any more.There was an article in today's newspaper that said that in 2003 alone, US airplanes holding 363 tons of cash were sent to Iraq, with almost no accounting of how the money was spent. 363 TONS of our money! Now you know why we're still at "war".
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on February 07, 2007 at 09:30:32 PT
nuevo mexican 
I checked out the article but it was hard for me to figure out but you can see this person has been seriously traumatized.
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Comment #3 posted by nuevo mexican on February 07, 2007 at 09:06:19 PT
Forgot the link to United for Peace!
Here it is!
(for the article on the rally last Month)www.Unitedforpeace.org Save it in your favorites! 
Over 300,000 members and growing fast!
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Comment #2 posted by nuevo mexican on February 07, 2007 at 09:01:59 PT
Rome burns and these guys fiddle with this!
When do WE get OUR act together and pass laws mandating drug-testing for lawmakers! That will end ALL drug-testing, as you can easily imagine why! NOT US! We are ABOVE you, and you already know we don't DO DRUGS! How can we submit to these tests, while those who would destroy America with illegal wars, wire-taps, suspension of habeas corpus, allow 911 to happen, destruction of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights?Ban these products, and a whole new line of products will appear, plus, the war on drugs is over, the Repugs are history, the Dems are slowly growing spines, and the American People are PISSED! Perfect brew for a revolution!More hemp rope to hang themselves by their own petard with!Remember, we just had a half-million people in the streets of Washington, and another huge rally on March 17-19 on the Anniversary of the Invasion/Occupation:January 27th was an extraordinary outpouring for peace in Washington DC and in communities all around the country. The National Mall was filled with the voices of 500,000 people committed to doing their part to end the war in Iraq and bring all of the troops home. And the energy in this massive turnout was electric.On Jan. 29, at least 1,000 people brought that energy and conviction into the offices of Congressional representatives from 47 states. It was one of the largest lobby days in decades, and capped an amazing weekend in the nation's Capitol.Join us by calling your members of Congress today, and telling them that those who marched and visited their offices speak for you! Call the Capitol Switchboard -- 202-224-3121 -- and ask to to be connected to your representatives' offices. Click here to find who your members of the new Congress are.Watch the rally on C-SPAN! (scroll down to find it)FOM, please read this blogpost at DailyKos from a Vet who recently returned from Iraq, and what he has to say, in spite of the bad punctuation, what is said, is very profound, and what we WON'T hear from our own media, the way the soldiers REALLY feel about what is being done to THEM, as well as what they have to do to others!What the hecks a troll lol and why so much hostility about punctuation?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/2/7/52341/64130'The Destroyer and His Helpers' ...by Cindy Sheehan
Recently, Sen. Hillary Clinton said during a speech that she knows there are people in the country who wish that Congress could "do more" then offer pathetic non-binding resolutions and even weaker bills that don't have a chance in Bush-Hell to get out of committee, or if by a miracle a bill reaches The Destroyer's desk, he would just veto it, or add one of his tyrannical and dictatorial signing statements.Excuse me, Ms. Clinton, Congress can do more. Congress has it in its power to stop The Destroyer and the depraved occupation of Iraq. Congress can quit enabling The Destroyer's addiction to destruction.Congress can vote "Nay" on the next 250 billion dollar request for more madness in the Middle East.Congress can start investigating the myriad of high crimes and misdemeanors of the Bush Crime Regime. Congress can remove BushCo from office and see that they are tried in criminal court for war crimes and crimes against our own Constitution. 
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=821
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Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on February 07, 2007 at 08:11:28 PT
The Labor movement
Have they lost their minds? Why are they supporting this? Just another indication that the entities that used to advocate for "the people" have either been co-opted or dismantled. 
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