KANE JUDGE TARGETS DRUG `PURGE' HERBS OFFICIALS CONSIDER MARKETING BAN

In an effort to determine whether local stores are selling herbal products
designed to thwart drug tests, Kane County Circuit Judge James Doyle went
undercover.

Donning street clothes, a cap and sunglasses, Doyle earlier this month went
to the General Nutrition Center in Batavia. After telling them he needed a
so-called purge product for a drug test, he was directed to a locked cabinet
that contained several such concoctions, he said.

"I bought a little bottle of liquid, and it cost me $40," Doyle said.

Miffed at the experience, Doyle is on a mission to get municipal and state
legislators to ban the marketing of such products. So far, he has received
favorable responses in Aurora and St. Charles, and local state legislators
plan to take the issue up in January.

Doyle said he has discussed the idea of a statewide ban with state Sen.
Chris Lauzen, an Aurora Republican, and state Rep. Tim Schmitz, a Batavia
Republican.

Schmitz on Wednesday said legislators in January would discuss a ban on the
marketing of purge products. "We have to make sure we are on solid legal
ground," he added.

Lauzen agreed that a legal remedy would be difficult. Still Doyle argued
"all of the communities and police that test for drugs are relying on the
results." Doyle presides in the county's drug rehabilitation courtroom,
where defendants who pass drug tests for six months avoid jail sentences.

Though stores that sell the products point out they contain all natural
ingredients that are legal, Doyle said that misses the point. "It's another
thing to have a major corporation marketing and selling a specific product
for this use," he said.

Pittsburgh-based GNC said in a written statement it "does not make product
claims that are not in accordance with the law. Store personnel are
encouraged to be helpful to customers inquiring about product choices, but
are required to remain in compliance with the policy of not making
unsubstantiated product claims."

A November 1999 internal GNC legal department memo issued to all 4,599 U.S.
franchises stated store personnel should not claim an "herbal product or tea
will help the user pass a drug test."

The products don't explicitly claim on their packaging that they block
positive drug test results, and, indeed, they may not.

Debbie Nau, a supervisor at the toxicology lab used by the county courts,
said her company's tests can determine whether someone has taken such a
product.

"They are buying a vitamin B or niacin supplement and being told to drink
copious amounts of liquid," said Nau of Redwood Toxicology Laboratories in
Santa Rosa, Calif. "It's a scam. They don't work."

Illegal drugs may not be detected in the urine sample, but the dilution
effect of the liquids is detected by a low level of creatinine, a metabolic
protein. Doyle said creatine supplements are sold with or contained in some
of the products, but Nau said that even with doses of creatine, an enzyme,
creatinine levels remain below normal.

Tom Scott, special programs manager for the Kane County court services
department, confirmed drug tests can reveal when someone has taken purge
products. "If the creatinine is below a certain level, it's an indication
that a person has made an attempt to flush their system of drugs," he said.

In those cases, court services performs surprise random drug tests on
defendants, so they can't plan to take purge products, he said.

Scott, however, said less sophisticated tests would not detect low
creatinine levels. "They may test using these less sophisticated systems and
think that the person is clean and they really are not," he said. "It's a
much larger issue."

The purge products, also known as detoxification products, are sold on the
Internet for as little as $15 and in stores for as much as $50. The St.
Charles City Council, at the urging of Police Chief Don Shaw, has asked
stores to stop selling purge products. Shaw said he will publicly identify
stores that don't cooperate.

In Aurora, where Doyle made a pitch Tuesday for a resolution banning the
marketing and sale of purge products, Mayor David Stover said the City
Council likely would pass a resolution "to discourage" their sale in local
stores.

Stover said it was disturbing to him that store employees may be pitching
purge products.

"If in fact they are doing this, they could be encouraging a school bus
driver, for example, to thwart a drug test," he said. "What it boils down to
is a sense of morality and decency in our community."

But Stover said it would likely take federal or state legislation to ban the
sale of such products.

"The greatest challenge is discouraging its sale on the Internet," he added.