S.C. HIGH COURT HEARS AD CASE

COLUMBIA - Attorneys for the former owner of a Richland County store say it
is not a crime to advertise a legal product even if customers may want it
to beat a drug test. "Speech doesn't make the crime," attorney H. Louis
Sirkin argued before the S.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Edward Rothschild III has been fighting his 2000 conviction of possessing a
substance that can be used to defraud a drug or alcohol test, saying the
law violates his commercial speech rights.

Sirkin said his client had a First Amendment right to run an advertisement
in a local newspaper that read: "Taking a drug test? Want to cleanse your
system?"

In 1999, the State Law Enforcement Division responded to the ad for Nicki's
Novelty Store, where a clerk told an undercover agent a drink called Zydot
would hide the presence of marijuana in a drug test, Sirkin said.

A Web site that sells Zydot says one hour after drinking it "your urine may
be pure for four hours."

Sirkin argued the product Zydot is legal.

"It only becomes illegal when it is used in an illegal way," he said.

"The person who uses the product with the purpose of defrauding a drug test
is the customer," Sirkin said.

But Assistant Attorney General Melody Brown said Rothschild ordered Zydot
to be sold to defraud drug tests, not to quench thirst.

Justice Costa Pleicones asked Brown for the proof. "Where do the thought
police stop?" he said.

Brown said Rothschild's advertisement shows his intent to sell the products
for the purpose of defrauding drug tests.

"Moreover, the presence of additional products, with the same detoxifying
purpose, indicates a lack of mistake or accident in the assessment of the
intent," court papers said.

The justices will issue a ruling on the case later.

Last year, the justices said the state could ban urine sales intended to
defraud drug tests.