The Emperor Wears No Clothes

by Jack Herer

Inaccurate Urine Testing

Military/factory worker marijuana urine tests are only partially accurate and do not indicate the extent of your intoxication. They indicate only whether you have smoked or been in the presence of cannabis smoke or have eaten hempseed oil or any hempseed food product in the last 30 days. Whether you smoked or ate it an hour ago or 30 days ago and sometimes if you haven’t smoked it at all the test results are the same: Positive.

John P. Morgan, M.D., stated in High Times February 1989 (and in 1999 he still says), “The tests are far from reliable. Tampering and high rates of false-positives, falsenegatives, etc. are common, and further these testing companies are held to no standards but their own.”

At 20-50 nanograms (billionths of a gram) per milliliter of THC Carboxy Acid (a metabolite) these tests can be read as positive or negative yet results derived from this part of the scale are known to be meaningless. To the untrained eye, any positive indication sends up a red flag. And most testers are untrained and uncertified. Still, the decision to hire, fire, detain, re-test, or begin drug abuse treatment is made for you on the spot.

“I believe the tendency to read the EMIT [the urine test for THC metabolites] test below the detection limit is one of the important reasons why the test was not often confirmed in published reports,” Dr. Morgan said.

In 1985, for the first time, Milton, Wisconsin, high school kids were ordered to have urine tests weekly to see if they smoked pot. Local “Families Against Marijuana” type organizations were demanding this testing, but not for liquor, downers, or other hazardous drugs.

Hundreds of communities and high schools throughout the country were awaiting the outcome of constitutional challenges in Milton in 1988 before implementing similar testing programs in their own school districts. Because of this ruling in Milton’s favor, testing for high school students participating in extra-curricular activities has since been widely adopted and continues across the United States in 1998.

For instance, in Oregon the testing of high-school athletes has spread by court order to any and all extra-curricular activity. Band members and majorettes even debate team members, some debating on the marijuana issue can now be tested at will in all states except California, where even a high school student can, since 1996, legally have a doctor’s recommendation or acknowledgement for the medical use of marijuana.