ClearTest

Snacks can make people obese and high-wired. But get them fired? A U.S. Border Patrol agent dismissed from his job earlier this year after testing positive for drugs is blaming a San Diego-based manufacturer of hemp bars for his downfall. Michael Baranic, a San Diego attorney representing the fired agent, said his client’s troubles started last year after he ate Govinda’s Fitness Foods hemp bars just before a random drug test.

(more…)

A Saraland, Alabama, woman who filed a rape complaint after a 4th of July date turned ugly was ordered to provide a urine sample for a drug test in Mobile County District Court on July 9. The order came after Judge Delano Palughi ruled favorably on a defense motion asking the court to force the accuser to submit to a drug test.

(more…)

When the Supreme Court ruled in June in Earls v. Tecumseh that local school districts could constitutionally drug test students involved in extracurricular activities, the drug testing industry, some congressional drug warriors, and at least one well-known political hired gun got excited. But a round of interviews conducted by DRCNet this week suggests that school districts are not about to embark on a headlong rush into student drug testing despite the high court’s green light.

(more…)

The Pentagon’s battle to keep illicit drugs out of the barracks and off warships has faltered during the past few years as more servicemen and women have failed drug tests and been discharged. Drug use has increased after a 20-year decline, and 17,000 people have been kicked out of the Navy, Army, Air Force and Marine Corps since 1999, according to statistics compiled by The San Diego Union-Tribune.

(more…)

Thank you, Jed Gottlieb, for your "Pee to Play" article on the recent Supreme Court ruling approving "urinate on demand" testing for high school students. The broad application of suspicionless drug testing does not bode well for a free society.

(more…)

If you’re a criminal, a runaway or a terrorist, a day at the beach here may soon be anything but that.

The city will become the second in the nation—Tampa, Fla., is the other—to employ facial-recognition software to assist police in identifying and catching criminals and missing persons.

(more…)

Urine and chromates have prompted a pair of lawsuits, one against Solano County, which settled last week, and another which awaits a hearing in federal court next month.

Robert Towner, a Solano County Transportation Department maintenance worker, filed the lawsuits. He had never heard of chromate before his life was turned upside down when a laboratory reported it had found the substance in Towner’s urine.

(more…)

Having been required to submit to random urinalysis after a misdemeanor charge for possesion of cannabis, I tested positive for PCP on a five panel drug screen test. To say that I was fearful of the outcome would be an understatement. After much anxiety and contacting the manufacturer, it turns out that the test results occured because of an anti-depressent named Effexor.

(more…)

Pee in a cup for officials at Matthews High School in Virginia and receive a free parking pass worth $25 and free admission to all school events. The compelling offer to students is known as voluntary drug testing, according to the "Daily Press." Students who allow administrators to violate their privacy in this manner may also be allowed to miss four days of school instead of three and still be able to take final exams.

(more…)

Seemingly turning its back to the United States Constitution, years of precedent, the most inherent civil liberties, and a nation that prides itself on the virtues of limited government, in June 1995 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Vernonia, Washington School District law mandating drug tests for all secondary school athletes regardless of reasonable suspicion. While Justice Antonin Scalia’s majority opinion of the Court notes that this decision will not serve as a slippery slope toward the eventual mass testing of all students, the tragic irony of this case is that this latest decision is—in itself—the end result of just such a downward spiral.

(more…)

An internal affairs investigation has uncovered a drug testing discrepancy at the troubled State Police lab, Public Safety Secretary Joe Martin said today.

State Police Superintendent Howard Hill said he has put two lab workers on leave in connection with the incident.

(more…)

Redding defense attorney Jeffrey Stotter said he has at least one client who might be sitting in prison after an inaccurate drug test.

Patricia Griffith, is serving 10 years in prison for a vehicular manslaughter conviction that involved the use of alcohol—and a blood sample drawn by lab owner George Goehring.

(more…)

The US Supreme Court agreed this week to hear a case that will allow it to refine its rules on what constitutes acceptable drug testing of high school students. In an Oregon case in 1995, the Supreme Court held that student athletes could be tested because drug use was found to be prevalent at the school in question. But since then, school districts around the country have attempted to expand student drug testing to include students involved in other extracurricular activities, students who drive cars to school, and, in some cases, random, suspicionless tests of all students.

(more…)

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the medical privacy of pregnant women Wednesday, ruling that hospital officials and police may not conspire to secretly test patients for drugs.

In a 6-3 ruling, the court said the Constitution’s protection for privacy outweighs the government’s need to detect drug use, even when a fetus could be exposed.

(more…)

Recently, I helped a mom give birth to her third baby. Carrie’s first, a daughter, lived with her and her boyfriend. Her second had been the result of rape, and was born precipitously, a vaginal breech in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. That baby was adopted by a family member. Now she was engaged to be married and happy about this forthcoming arrival.

(more…)