NEW POLICE DRUG POLICY TAKES ON HEMP OIL

A New York City Police Department policy that took effect this week has
some officers wondering whether poppy seed bagels are now as off-limits to
them as heroin, graft or consorting with organized crime figures. The
policy, which prohibits police officers from using commercial products that
may contain illegal drugs or their derivatives, was intended, in part, to
make it more difficult for police officers who test positive for drug use
to argue that their test results were skewed by their use of certain foods,
health care products or cosmetics.

The only product mentioned by name in the policy is hemp oil, a legal item
used in cooking and cosmetics that sometimes contains enough traces of the
active ingredient in marijuana that it can cause people to fail drug tests.
But a number of other commonplace foods and over-the-counter medicines can
also cause false positive readings. They include poppy seed bagels, since
poppy seeds can result in a positive test result for opiates, and certain
cough medicines, which can cause people to test positive for amphetamines.
The department defended the new policy, noting that while hemp oil was
banned outright, other products would be evaluated on a case-by-case basis
if connected with positive drug test results.

Poppy seeds, for example, have not been specifically banned, said Michael
A. Markman, the chief of personnel.

"When you take the drug test," he said, "we ask you what foods you have
eaten, what prescription drugs you are taking, what over-the-counter
medications you are taking.

"When you tell us poppy seeds, we ask, 'How many?' And then we tell the
lab, and they know how many poppy seeds cause certain levels on the test
results." The new policy, which went into effect on Monday, did not go over
very well with police officers.

"This is ridiculous," said a veteran supervisor. "It doesn't even say what
we can or can't use. We have to check ourselves. It puts the onus on cops
to read the ingredients of everything. And we're not chemists." The policy
cautions: "Although some of these products clearly indicate the presence of
prohibited substances, others claim not to contain illegal drugs,
derivatives or ingredients. Because these illegal substances may be present
in some products despite the manufacturer's claim to the contrary, members
of the service are advised to exercise caution and carefully examine the
list of ingredients of any product which does or might contain prohibited
substances."

A police official said that the policy was written after a number of cases
in which public servants -- including members of the military and the
police in New York and elsewhere in the country -- have successfully
defended themselves from charges of using illegal drugs by claiming to have
used products that can lead to so-called false-positive readings on drug
tests. Recently, the official said, a New York police officer who was
dismissed after failing a drug test successfully used the hemp oil defense
to gain reinstatement.

The union representing police officers, the Patrolmen's Benevolent
Association, denounced the new policy. "We are not scientists or doctors,"
the union said in a statement. "We are police officers. To expect police
officers to read a list of ingredients on a bag of snack food, many of
which are named in chemical terms, is to ask the impossible." Police
officers are tested for drugs when they join the force, if they exhibit
bizarre behavior or if they are selected by computer for random testing.
When they are called for random testing, they must leave their command and
report to the offices of the department's Medical Division in Lefrak City,
Queens.

Under the new policy, any officer who tests positive for using hemp oil or
any other products in the new class of "prohibited substances" can be
dismissed.