KEEPING AHEAD OF THE BLADDER COPS

Here's a little-known fact about the drug tests given to thousands of
truckers, youth counselors, peace officers, bus drivers and other
California professionals as a condition of getting or keeping their
jobs: Cheating isn't illegal, officials say.

If you're caught, you won't be prosecuted.

And there's a wide variety of products to help you cheat - from
tablets to capsules to drinks - that come with money-back promises and
eye-catching advertisements:

"Pass Any Drug Test - Guaranteed."

"Never Worry About a Drug Test Again."

One manufacturer says its formula is "constantly changed to keep ahead
of the bladder cops."

The products carry names like Quick Fix or Clear Choice or The
Urinator, the latter a small electronic module to maintain correct
testing temperatures for water that mixes with concentrated,
store-bought urine to produce a toxin-free sample.

California Assemblyman George Runner, R-Lancaster, sees such products
as a loophole and a way for opportunists to make money by mocking a
system designed to enhance public safety.

Runner has proposed legislation, Assembly Bill 154, to outlaw the
manufacture, sale or advertising of products designed to alter drug
tests.

"Right now, it's flaunted," he said of cheating. "When somebody
advertises that they'll help you fool a drug test, it strikes at the
core of what public and private employers are trying to accomplish."

But critics say Runner's approach is filled with enforcement problems,
including:

- - The California legislation would not affect national Internet sales,
so drug cheaters could simply turn from stores to computers.

- - Many substances used to cheat drug tests also have legitimate uses
as herbs, bleaches or shampoos, for example.

- - The bill targets only the makers and sellers of test-cheating
products, not the users, so it would not reduce demand and could spawn
a black market.

"My first response was to laugh," said Dr. Kent Holtorf, a Southern
California physician and outspoken opponent of drug-testing programs.
"We keep piling on to the drug war by making more and more laws that
aren't enforceable."

Runner's legislation is a simplistic solution to a complex problem, he
said.

"Manufacturers would just say that their product is meant to prevent a
false positive test for hempseed oil," he said. "Hemp seeds are legal
but they have a small amount of THC (a substance found in marijuana).
So test results can be indistinguishable."

The manager of one Sacramento-area smoke shop, which sells a
toxin-flushing product that vows to help users "test pure," said not
every buyer is a drug user trying to evade detection.

"Some people take these things regularly just to cleanse their
systems," said the manager, who identified himself only as Jim. "It
has nothing to do with drug testing."

In cases where a test-cheating product also has legitimate uses,
Runner said, his bill would limit how it could be marketed.

"They'd have to advertise for that legitimate function," he said.

But critics say free-speech rights are violated when restrictions are
placed on how legal products can be marketed.

Runner concedes his legislation would not eliminate cheating.

"Will there be people who get around it? Sure," Runner said.

"But what we're saying is that this state feels (test integrity) is an
important issue," he said. "A vote against this bill is a statement
that it's OK to sell products in California that help you cheat on
drug tests."

Currently, many employers treat an altered drug test as they do a
positive test: Applicants typically are disqualified. Existing
employees can face sanctions ranging from drug treatment to firing.

Cheaters are not subject to arrest, however, unless their actions
violate probation or parole conditions stemming from a previous crime.

Runner said he has not ruled out amending his bill to include users of
test-cheating substances, but such a clause could increase the burden
and cost to local police agencies, he said.

Quest Diagnostics, a leading provider of drug-test services, detects
about 360,000 adulterated tests each year, roughly one of every 100
exams it handles nationwide, records show.

Experts say extensive sample-testing procedures can reduce test
cheating but not eliminate it.

Joe Crespillo, 20, was scouring a Sacramento smoke shop last week for
a product to flush marijuana from his system. He's preparing for a
military drug test.

"I've been drinking vinegar and taking cayenne peppers," he said. "I
hear that helps."

Crespillo said he quit smoking marijuana three weeks ago.

"If people choose to use drugs, that's their business," he said.

Critics say the real issue should be drug-testing itself, which they
claim is unreliable, unnecessary, invades privacy, increases workplace
tensions, and can produce false-positive tests that jeopardize jobs
and ruin lives.

Eliminating drug testing, they say, would kill the market for maskers.

"We're harming too many people for no legitimate purpose," Holtorf
said. "Drugs are bad. But is drug testing good?"

Supporters of drug testing say the process is a necessary, and
effective, response to studies showing that drug users cost U.S.
businesses billions of dollars annually in lost productivity and
health-care costs.