URINE TROUBLE IN CAROLINA

Shopowner Bemoans Loss Of Rights

For almost a decade, my stores sold an assortment of cleansing teas,
detoxification drinks and urine additives. Customers sought to clean out
their systems for four to six hours and I did not ask them why. They could
buy similar products from some health food stores, pharmacies and even
convenience stores. The products had names as vague as Detoxify, Black
Magic and Ready-Clean. My guess is that the ingredients include some
creatine and a lot of powdered fruit pectin. Everyone says they taste
awful. A new law was passed in North Carolina, effective December 1, 2002
making it a first offense misdemeanor and a second offense felony to sell
these products. No one informed me of this until Clear Choice, a brand I
haven't carried in years, sent me a copy of the law and stated that they
would no longer ship product to North Carolina.

The official words state that "It is unlawful. . .to adulterate a urine or
other bodily fluid sample with the intent to defraud a drug or alcohol
screening test. . .to possess adulterants that are intended to be used to
adulterate a sample ... sell adulterants with the intent that they be used
to adulterate a sample."

Needless to say, my inventory was swept into a box and put in the storage room.

Although I never stated such a purpose for these products, I admit that all
of us business folks have the sneaking suspicion that they might be used to
foul up drug testing. However, it's been a decade of don't ask, don't tell
for me. I consider all drug screens for school and work to be a violation
of one's civil rights, and feel that the public has a constitutional right
to interfere with any search without reasonable cause.

My business will survive without selling detox products. However, I worry
about the many customers who came in, some monthly, in order to purchase
them. Some will resort to internet sales although many express reluctance
to have such items shipped through the mail to their home addresses. Most
will likely head to their nearest border town in neighboring South
Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

I worry about the shrinking rights of Americans to do basically whatever
the hell they want as long as no one is hurt in the process. Nothing
written on the labels of detox products stated any illicit purpose. Even
the product touted by Tommy Chong's stony smile, Urine Luck, had its
alternative stated use: Add to your aquarium to commit euthanasia in the
case of sick and dying fish.

Hey, why not? Doesn't a legal use usually create a legal intent for the
item? However, few of us can risk a felony conviction in order to
stubbornly cling to our freedom to sell fruit pectin, assorted additives
and little vials of yellow-dyed fluid.

I know that I live in the Bible Belt and should understand that community
standards are a wee bit more conservative than in, say, Northern
California. Still, we have the same Constitution here as everywhere else in
America. But until most drug testing is declared unconstitutional by the
Supreme Court, we'll have to expect continued restrictions on related
products and issues.

Debra McCorkle is a shopowner living in the mountains of North Carolina.