NURSING HOME EXPECTS DRUG-TEST RESULTS TODAY TO ANSWER MARIJUANA QUESTION

Ulcer Drug May Have Caused False Readings

Claiborne County officials say they expect to have the final results
sometime today of 23 drug tests performed on residents at a county-run
nursing home.

Linda Vanlandingham, quality and risk manager for Claiborne County Hospital
and Nursing Home, said Tuesday the test results would take a day longer
than originally expected because of a problem at the testing facility,
Quest Lab in Atlanta.

Last week, one nursing home patient tested positive for marijuana ingestion
after a urine sample was analyzed by a drug screening kit made by Biosite,
a San Diego-based company. Further testing at the nursing home initially
showed 23 other patients also had traces of marijuana in their urine.

Follow-up testing at the Atlanta lab, however, revealed the first patient's
test outcome had been a "false positive," caused by the anti-ulcer drug
Protonix, according to hospital officials. After checking the medical
records of all the patients who had tested positive for marijuana, it was
determined that each of them had been taking Protonix.

A Biosite official confirmed Tuesday that the presence of Protonix in a
urine sample analyzed by the kit can trigger inaccurate results.

"With many test kits - not just ours - Protonix will show up as marijuana,"
said Biosite vice president of corporate and investor relations Nadine Padilla.

Padilla said her company works with major pharmaceutical makers to ensure
that possible interactions with the screening kit are noted and reported to
customers.

The screening kit in question is generally used in hospital emergency rooms
and other triage environments to determine if a patient has taken certain
types of drugs, according to the company. It is used by 45 percent of U.S.
hospitals and provides test results in approximately 10 minutes.