DROP IN, DROP PANTS AT PROBATION OFFICE?

The Bexar County Probation Department may start requiring probationers to
remove their pants when they go for drug tests.

The announcement comes two weeks after an 18-year-old college student, on
probation for a DWI, was caught wearing a prosthetic device attached to a
heat-controlled pouch of synthetic urine.

Ruben Escamilla Jr. bought the $149 gadget, which comes in four skin tones,
through a magazine. "The Whizzinator," like a host of other products used to
falsify drug tests, is also available online.

"We're going to have to pay much more attention," Probation Chief Caesar
Garcia said. "We may have to go a little further now and require them to
drop their pants. We need to talk to the district attorney's office and get
some feedback."

An official with the district attorney's office said Tuesday that Escamilla
could face additional misdemeanor charges. That would be in addition to the
180-day jail term the college freshman was handed by County Court Judge
M'Liss Christian on June 11, for violating his probation by "possessing a
phallic device to provide a false urine sample."

Escamilla, who did not respond to a written request for an interview, was
also found to have tested positive in April for marijuana. His secret gadget
was discovered June 6 when he showed up for a required drug test and was
informed he'd be taken into custody for the April drug violation.

Texas is one of only three states in the country that prohibit the use or
manufacture of any substance or device used to falsify drug test results,
according to the Drug and Alcohol Testing Industry Association.

"Texas, Pennsylvania and South Carolina, that's it," said Laura Shelton, the
association's executive director.

She added that between 60 to 70 percent of companies around the country
require drug testing, usually as a condition of employment. Those companies
typically adopt guidelines forbidding falsifying the test results, but do
little monitoring once a person enters the restroom.

Drug testing policies have sparked a proliferation of products designed to
outsmart the drug testers.

"You Can Test Clean" reads a Web site promoting a detox drink for $29.99.
"Pass Any Drug Test Guaranteed!" proclaims another site that sells synthetic
urine and various detox drinks starting at $30.

Garcia said he's seen plenty of clever schemes in his day, but none quite
like the Whizzinator.

"It was so realistic looking," he said Tuesday.

While other companies have long sold synthetic urine in heat packs, Shelton
said the Whizzinator was the first product she knew of that included a
phallic device, too.

"Someone was really thinking when they developed this one," Shelton said.

The California-based manufacturer also markets a device for women. "We
simply delete the prosthetic," said a co-owner of the company, who gave his
name only as Dennis.

Dennis said his 3-year-old product is designed to be used lawfully by people
who want to keep information about their bodies private.

"Whenever you give a urine sample, you're telling everyone about your diet,
whether you smoke cigarettes, whether or not you're a diabetic. Basically we
have that silly feeling that this is still America."

Garcia said his office has long required that their technicians watch
probationers as they give urine samples -- and then test the samples to make
sure they're at body temperature. The county's probation department conducts
about 5,200 drug tests a month.

Faced with the almost-certain knowledge that more Whizzinators will make
their way into his office, Garcia said his employees will have to figure out
how to outwit law-breakers.

"If people would use their ingenuity to stay off drugs, we'd all be better
off," he said.