HIGH COURT UPHOLDS MOST URINE SALES BAN LAW

COLUMBIA (AP) (--) An Upstate man who sells his urine over the Internet
won't get relief from the South Carolina Supreme Court to continue his
business in the state. Kenneth Curtis asked the state's highest court to
review a lower court's refusal to block implementation of a 1999 law making
it illegal to sell urine in South Carolina to defraud drug screening tests.

Curtis sold the $69 kits through an Internet site. The kits included a
packet of his urine, a warming device and a tube that would allow people to
thwart drug tests. The high court noted a cartoon on the Web site showing a
man urinating on a law officer. A caption said legislators "can't stop the
flow."

Curtis' Privacy Protection Services used to operate out of Greenville, but
has moved to North Carolina.

The court did not have to take up the case, but said that there were
important issues in it that needed to be addressed.

The Supreme Court upheld most of the law that says selling urine to defraud
a drug screening test was a felony. The court's unanimous ruling says part
of the law is unconstitutional because it would require jurors to presume
people are guilty if they sold a urine kit with heating equipment or
instructions on how to thwart a drug screening test.

The rest of the law stands, the court said as it rejected arguments that
the statute was vague, didn't serve a legitimate public interest, violated
interstate commerce and invaded privacy.

"A statute making it unlawful to defraud a drug test furthers the public
purpose of ensuring a drug-free workplace," Chief Justice Jean Toal wrote
for the court. "Furthermore, the public purpose of creating safety in the
workplace outweighs any legitimate interest, if any, of Curtis in doing
business."