POTENTIAL HARM FROM PROHIBITIONIST TACTIC

A recent Darts & Laurels supported the effort to further criminalize the
sale of urine. Without going far into the debate over the utter folly of the
drug war, I can offer at least one good reason to avoid such legislation.
There may be a chance that it would legally invalidate all drug tests.

Drug tests, like many other clinical assays, estimate the concentration of a
particular metabolite by comparing it to what scientists call a "standard
curve" -- the assay results in response to a range of known concentrations.
Most such assays include the "zero point" -- the response elicited by a
control sample with endogenous levels of a given metabolite only. In this
case, that zero point would be best measured with clean urine.

It seems that outlawing urine with no drug metabolites would make it
impossible to establish the standard curve required to give a valid
"positive" or "negative" on a drug test. Again, drug warriors fail to see
the potential harm from well-meaning (but ludicrous) prohibitionist tactics.

Danny Terwey

Pacifica, Calif.