STUDENT'S SECRET DEVICE MAY LEAD TO NEW DRUG-TEST CHECKS

SAN ANTONIO- An 18-year-old college student's attempt to fool his probation
officer with a fake urine sample has persuaded officials to take another
look at the way drug tests are administered.

Two weeks ago, the student -- on probation for driving while intoxicated --
was caught wearing a prosthetic device attached to a heat-controlled pouch
of synthetic urine.

Bexar County probation chief Caesar Garcia said his office long has
required that its technicians watch probationers as they give urine samples
- -- and then test the samples to make sure they're at body temperature. The
county's probation department conducts about 5,200 drug tests a month.

Garcia said the student's $149 gadget -- which comes in four skin tones and
was bought through an advertisement in a magazine -- was discovered on June
6 when the student showed up for a required drug test and was told he'd be
taken into custody for having tested positive in April for marijuana.

"We're going to have to pay much more attention," Garcia said. "We may have
to go a little further now ... We need to talk to the district attorney's
office and get some feedback. If people would use their ingenuity to stay
off drugs, we'd all be better off."

An official with the district attorney's office told the San Antonio
Express-News for its Wednesday editions that Ruben Escamilla Jr. could face
additional misdemeanor charges. That would be in addition to the 180-day
jail term that County Court Judge M'Liss Christian handed Escamillo on June
11 for violating his probation by "possessing a phallic device to provide a
false urine sample."

Texas is one of only three states in the country that prohibit the use or
manufacture of any substance or device used to falsify drug test results,
according to the Drug and Alcohol Testing Industry Association.

"Texas, Pennsylvania and South Carolina, that's it," said Laura Shelton,
the association's executive director.

She added that between 60 percent and 70 percent of companies around the
country require drug testing, usually as a condition of employment.

Those companies typically adopt guidelines forbidding falsifying the test
results, but do little monitoring once a person enters the restroom.

Drug testing policies have sparked a proliferation of products designed to
outsmart the drug testers.

"You Can Test Clean" reads a Web site promoting a detox drink for $29.99.
"Pass Any Drug Test Guaranteed!" proclaims another site that sells
synthetic urine and various detox drinks starting at $30.

Garcia said he's seen plenty of clever schemes in his day, but none quite
like Escamilla's.

A co-owner of the California-based manufacturer, who gave his name only as
Dennis, told the Express-News his three-year-old product is designed to be
used lawfully by people who want to keep information about their bodies
private.

"Whenever you give a urine sample, you're telling everyone about your diet,
whether you smoke cigarettes, whether or not you're a diabetic," he said.
"Basically we have that silly feeling that this is still America."