"DRUG TESTING AIDS" ARE A THRIVING INDUSTRY

Drug tests have become almost as common in the job application process
as listing a previous employer.

And just as some applicants fudge their job history and overstate
their academic credentials, many are trying to thwart drug screening
tests.

The result is a thriving industry in "drug testing aids'' -- products
designed to beat drug screening tests.

The hundreds of available products and companies that sell them are
involved in an elaborate and ever-escalating cat and mouse game of
drug testing. The drug-test cheaters raise the bar and the companies
that test for drugs jump higher, as do the prices for those tests.

Workplace industry groups estimate that nearly 87 percent of all
employers use drug testing as a pre-employment screening method, a
percentage that has grown exponentially in the last few years.
SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories, for example, performed
300,000 tests in 1987; this year, it will do 5.5 million.

The company is "trying to keep ahead of the curve'' said spokesman
Thomas Johnson.

Fortunately, for Johnson and his company, many of the drug-foiling
products are little more than diuretics designed to flush the system.

"The solution to pollution is dilution,'' is the motto of the
anti-testing trade, Johnson said. That strategy makes detection easier
- -- diluted urine is easy to spot. Another method is to put something
into the urine that will mask the presence of the drug or invalidate
the test.

He said some employers have taken the stance that a tampered-with test
result should meet with the same consequences as a positive test result.

Crying 'Foul'

That kind of philosophy makes John Hartman, president of the
Northcoast chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws, cry "foul.''

Drug testing doesn't indicate on-the-job intoxication, he said, but
past use.

"Smoke a joint over the weekend and you can fail the test,'' Hartman
fumed.

Hartman sells drug-testing products at his store, Cannibas Connection,
in Lakewood, Ohio, and said he knows of only three failures among the
thousands of people who have used the product.

"People who are on drugs will do anything to beat the system,''
conceded Amy Cunningham, an account representative with Zenza Mobile
Medical Service, a mobile drug-testing service based in Twinsburg,
Ohio.

As people begin to tamper with specimens, Zenza has become more
vigilant. It added a blueing agent to toilets so that during a test,
employees can't dip the specimen cup in the water and dilute their
urine. They also turn off the water.

People are required to wash their hands before being tested so that
any substances on their hands or under their nails can't be added to
their urine collection.

The specimen cup even comes with a temperature strip that determines
the urine is between 90 and 100. Over or under and the specimen is
automatically rejected, Cunningham said.

The next step is to test the concentration of the urine. Diluted urine
is flagged as possibly tampered with or the result of a person
flushing his or her system.

The company also tests for nitrates, which are common in products
popular with the drug test-thwarting set.

Expensive Subterfuge

The products are expensive and often not worth the money, said John
Boja, assistant professor of pharmacology at the Northeastern Ohio
Universities College of Medicine. He recently examined a popular
product in the Akron, Ohio, area.

"Thirty-five dollars for water, sugar, flavorings, creatinine and
vitamins,'' Boja scoffed. "With that much money, they could have made
enough solution for several hundred bottles. . . . The profit margins
are enormous.''

By drinking a lot of water for a few days, depending on the type of
drugs and the quantity used, a person may be able to flush his system
so chemical traces would be below levels detected in a standard
drug-screening test, Boja said. The other methods of tampering --
adding eye drops, drain cleaners, bleach or chemicals to the urine
sample -- are usually foiled, he said.

People do desperate, silly and sometimes dangerous things to pass drug
tests, Boja said, when there's one easy way to pass -- stop using drugs.

One company that makes drug-test-passing products agrees with
him.

Detoxit Inc. in Dallas caters to the former drug user who doesn't want
past use to show up in his system, not active imbibers, said Devon
Allen, a medical technologist with the company.

Some drugs can linger in your system for 30 days, and Allen said
that's a long time for a person who has quit using and wants to find a
job.

No Quick Fix

Allen's products aren't designed to mask or cover up the drug use, he
said.

"Anyone who says they can get (drugs) out in three hours, or
overnight, is lying and cheating people,'' Allen said.

But most of the sites and products on the Internet are touting the
quick-fix method.

Most of these sites have clever names like Tommy Chong's (of the
Cheech and Chong comedy team) "Urineluck.'' There's also "Testclean''
and "Notatrace.''

Other product ads find their way into alternative magazines, such as
High Times.

Richard, an executive at a drug-testing-aid company in Georgia who
asked that only his first name be used, is so confident of his
products that he offers a double-your-money-back guarantee on the
urine sample additives, herbal capsules and cleansing drinks.

He agreed, however, there are limits.

"There's nothing by any company that will help with blood,'' Richard
said.

Most employers don't use blood tests for drug screening. There is also
no antidote for the new sweat testing patch, which is worn on the skin
and detects drugs through perspiration.

But an antidote for that, too, may just be a matter of
time.

"We spend a lot of time and money on research and development,''
Richard said.