Marijuana.com

Lothar121

Lawmakers Object to Fake Penis for Drug Tests
Reuters | 05/12/2005

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A life-like prosthetic penis called the Whizzinator and other products promising to help illegal drug users pass urine tests provoked U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday to take legal action with subpoenas of manufacturers.
Lawmakers objected to attempts to circumvent drug Tests with products such as The Whizzinator, a fake penis that can provide a flow of clean urine "again and again, anytime, anywhere you need it!" according to the Web site www.whizzinator.com.

A congressional subcommittee voted to subpoena the owner of Puck Technology of Signal Hill, California, the company that makes the Whizzinator. The panel also voted to subpoena the owners of Health Choice of New York City and Spectrum Labs of Cincinnati, two companies that lawmakers said also were suspected of selling products aimed at circumventing workplace drug tests.

The owners were required to provide financial and operational records by Monday and to appear at a congressional hearing on Tuesday.

"These companies seek through deception to make a buck by violating our trust and compromising our security," said Rep. Ed Whitfield, a Kentucky Republican who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight and investigations panel.

"It is a risk we simply cannot tolerate. This panel will uncover how widespread these products are and recommend the necessary steps to end their use," Whitfield said in a statement.

Actor Tom Sizemore, who played a sergeant in the war movie "Saving Private Ryan," was caught using the Whizzinator to try and pass drug tests, California prosecutors said in February. He was put in jail after using a similar device and failing a drug test, prosecutors said.

DRINKS TO FLUSH DRUGS

The House committee is investigating whether federal legislation is needed to stop companies from making similar products, such as drinks that promise to flush out drug ingredients in urine.

The company officials had previously declined to testify and provided little information, a committee statement said.

Michael Fichera, owner of Health Choice, said he had told the committee he would cooperate with the investigation.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with the products we're selling," Fichera said in an interview. "We do a service. I think it's way more positive than negative."

He said users of his company's products, which include drinks and capsules, must be "clean" for two to three days before using them to pass a drug test.

"We're not beating or cheating on drug tests. We are just accelerating the cleansing time," Fichera said.

An official at Spectrum Labs did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the congressional action. A man who answered the phone at Puck Technology said no one was available to comment.

__________________

Donate. Write. Make a difference.. Posting Guidelines | Marijuana Policy Project | NORML | DPA | Drug WarRant | Media Awareness Project

 

didorusso

How the hell was he caught?

__________________
Measure your hair levels before anything else!

Buzzby

Sizemore couldn't resist getting the extra-large, dark-brown model.

I'm surprised this has taken so long to occur. Is a person committing a crime by using techniques to beat a drug test? Probably. I think it could be construed as fraud. In the case of probation it's a probation violation. For military and government high-security tests, in the current climate they'd probably call it treason.

Anyway, it's long been a crime to possess burglary tools in some jurisdictions. Since the Whizzinator has no legitimate purpose it could fall into the same sort of category.

__________________

didorusso

frolic

They are going to sell out the Whizzinator and copies of it. It will be fasionable to wear them at parties. Stranger things have happened.

 

StewScum

Drug tests are just to invasive these days, a nurse has to sit there and watch you pee. The problem with outlawing these cleansing products is that people will turn to unsafe alternatives, such as putting a little bit of bleach in water. As long as drug tests exist, people will try to get away with being 'unclean'. Jobs should be judged on preformance, not what that person does on his own time.

__________________
Life is like a pot of stew, if you don't stir it up every once and a while, all the scum rises to the top -Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins.

Buzzby

If they outlaw all the products purposely designed to help people beat drug tests what difference will it make? A few people will stop making a lot of money on products that are easily replaceable with much less expensive homemade alternatives.

cassiusclay

That's true. People could buy juicers and get some recipes on-line. They'd even get a side effect of better overall health.

__________________
...the Union provides the Safety, the safety provides the Freedom... what provides the union?

king cola

One of my sisters friends was on probation, i think she was caught with pot or was on probation for something but would get drug tested. They moved her to house arrest, she has to be home at a certain time all because she failed a drug test but didn't smoke pot. She was at her friends house, they would smoke with their windows closed and the smoke would have no place to go. She didn't smoke, was just in the room and tested positive. She thought you had to smoke to test positive but i guess just bein in a room with it you will have it in the blood stream.

That's one law that definatly needs to be expanded. Drug tests are a joke, who really cares if someone smokes pot. Eating certain foods aren't good for us either but we don't have politicians going around making sure everyone is eating their vegetables

For military and government high-security tests, in the current climate they'd probably call it treason.

I've heard stories in the past of GI's being used as gini pigs for PCP tests They criticize people for having pot in their system though!

Buzzby

It is virtually impossible to fail a urine test from second-hand smoke. You'd have to spend hours in a closet with a bunch of smokers. She was lying about not smoking, but then most people convicted of a crime proclaim their innocence.