DRUG SCREENING TAKES ON NEW MEANING

BILL: Prevalence Of Testing Gives Rise To Products That Help Users Avoid
Detection

As a student athlete on the UCLA swim team for the past three years,
Lyndee Hovsepian has become as accustomed to the random drug test as
much as she has to midterms.

The tests, which are standard for athletes in nearly all sports at the
intercollegiate level, are more a nuisance for Hovsepian than a worry.

"You have to go in between 8 and 10 in the morning," Hovsepian said.
"They give you a paper the day before you're drug tested, and the next
morning you have to pee in the bathroom in front of somebody."

In the world of athletic competition, bathroom monitors have become a
necessary evil to prevent athletes from altering their urine samples
before it is analyzed.

At the heart of the drug testing problem are individuals who try to
circumvent the urine drug screen for such drugs as marijuana and
steroids, often by taking supplements, exchanging the sample for
drug-free urine, or adding contaminants to the test.

Hovsepain said among UCLA athletes, cheating on drug tests is relatively
rare.

"Most athletes are aware of the tests, want to perform, and won't go
taking (drugs)," Hovsepian said. "Most athletes are really clean, so
it's not a problem."

Officials aren't taking any chances, though.

The UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory, directed by Don Catlin, is one
of only two labs in the world charged with testing such world-class
athletes for drug use.

Of the NCAA, Olympic, and NFL athletes he tests, Catlin said the
presence of marijuana in athletes' samples is rare.

He said tests for marijuana and similar drugs are based on a chemical
procedure known as an immunoassay.

"Immunoassay is a screening test that can be done very rapidly and with
a very high volume (of samples)," Catlin said. "You just load the
samples onto a moving belt sort of affair, and a few minutes later, out
comes the answer."

Catlin said the science of immunoassay relies on the basic immune
responses of lab animals like rabbits or mice, which produce antibodies
for a major constituent of marijuana known as Tetrahydrocannabinol, or
THC. Antibodies, which are made of Y-shaped proteins in series, can then
be used to identify the presence of such drugs as marijuana.

"They put together kits with these antibodies and some sort of labeled
marijuana so when they run the test, if the marijuana is in the urine,
it will inhibit the reaction and show as positive," Catlin said.

But this same specificity, Catlin said, makes the immunoassay urine test
specifically susceptible to tampering.

"I've read about companies that make products that try to interfere with
the antibody reaction and kills off the antibody," Catlin said. "If you
did that, the test would show up negative."

The problem seen in the athletic world is one that has also flowed into
the employment realm, where employers use drug screens for both hiring
and firing practices.

The result has been expanding competition between the companies
producing simple, on-site drug screens for employers and firms selling
substances to tamper with them.

According to Jerry Ramsey, whose Irvine-based biotech company sells
millions of do-it-yourself drug screen kits to companies and government
agencies each year, business has been booming.

The tests, based on the more sophisticated laboratory procedures
employed by Catlin in his lab, require a few minutes and a few drops of
urine placed on a plastic cassette.

"What happens with all these devices is the urine specimen is dissolved
on a wick, and through some chemical process, readings are made," Ramsey
said. "One set of values tells you whether the device is working, and
the other, whether or not it's negative."

But while Ramsey has made a business out of catching possible drug users
in the act, a whole industry of online brokers and brick-and-mortar
retailers have made their money trying to do just the opposite.

Marketing such products as herbal supplements, test contaminants, and
even drug-free urine, such companies expressly set out to help buyers
beat drug tests.

The products are offensive, according to George Runner, R-Lancaster, who
on Tuesday submitted a bill, AB154, to make the sale of such products
illegal in the state of California.

"Employers spend millions of dollars every year in lost time, accidents
and worker compensation costs due to drug use," Runner said in a
statement. "Allowing these drug-masking kits to continue to be sold is
irresponsible."

But Mason Zelazny, a representative for the online company that sells
1-Stop Detox, said such products may actually benefit the taker. Zelazny
said his product is really a three step program, which in addition to
helping a person pass a drug test, will eventually help them get clean.

"There are always individuals who try to beat the system and companies
that will try and get you through it," Zelazny said. "We don't offer
magic pills that you put into your urine - we're trying to change their
lifestyle."