'Drug Test Beating' Drink Inventor Arrested

[The Straight Story]

'Drug Test Beating' Drink Inventor Arrested
Charged With Drug Paraphernalia, Fraud, Money Laundering

PITTSBURGH -- Federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh charged a Florida man with selling a powdered drink mix he claimed was 100 percent effective in helping drug users pass federally mandated drug tests for truck drivers, pilots and train engineers.

Court records said Stephen Sharp, of Port Orange, Fla., operated Sharp Labs Inc. and the Web site www.yourintheclear.com from November 2006 through May 2008.

Sharp is scheduled to waive his right to an indictment and plead guilty to drug paraphernalia, fraud and money laundering charges on March 4 in Pittsburgh.

He was charged in a criminal information filed Tuesday, commonly done when prosecutors have reached a plea bargain with a defendant.

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/22365334/detail.html

[derby378]

1. Aren't those drinks legal in Texas?

:shrug:

[arcadian]

2. Isn't his right to make that protected as free speech?

He is a business owner after all.

[eShirl]

6. did he incorporate? n/t

[ddeclue]

19. DUZY ALERT! Ba-da-bing!

[DJ13]

3. I guess it worked?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. Good.

I don't have a problem with people cheating and passing federal drug screening.

I have a problem with people selling a fraudulent product that falsely claims to help users pass drug screening.

[mike_c]

8. that's the issue for me, too-- if it works, more power to him...

...but if it's a fraud-- and it's hard to imagine otherwise-- he's an utter fuckwad.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

13. What about drunk and stoned people out there on our highways driving trucks?

I'm not in favor of drug screening for every kind of job (or for welfare recipients) but I don't want truckers or other people performing public transportation jobs (i.e. Bus, airplane) to be out there intoxicated/under the influence and "beating" drug tests. Are you o.k. with THAT? :shrug:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

25. The stoned people I'm fine with.

Being drunk and driving is a little bit different than people who are drunk and then at some later point when they are not drunk drive.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

27. Huh?

I'm no expert (I've never been stoned and only mildly tipsy) but being stoned still leaves somebody mentally impaired for a time and operating heavy machinery (i.e. trucks, buses, airplanes) can't possibly be safe.
:wtf:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

31. No it doesn't.

[Mopar151]

32. It's about the hypocrisy

If you don't want people red eyed & nodding off behind the wheel in trucks and buses - write to the DOT and ask them to actually enforce the hour limits for over the road drivers - and ask your state legislators to make the same regs apply to commercial drivers in your state.

And the tests - when they check for alcahol use within 24 hours, psuedoephedrine, dextromethorphan, blood pressure medications like Toporol, sedative hypnotics like Ambien, or actually test for affected reflexes instead of metabolic by-products... Maybe I'd think they were a good idea. And then there's the people reading books or newspapers at full Interstate speed, or the cops or delivery guys doing their paperwork on the fly... Or DVD players on top of, or in the dash while in motion - you get the idea.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

35. Well, I agree that all of those distractions are bad too

and if people are found doing those things while they're hauling those trucks around, well, then they should be punished as well. I also agree that the DOT should definitely enforce limits for over the road drivers and punish businesses that violate them accordingly. However, that doesn't make concerns about drugs/alcohol- which are arguably a very big problem in our society- hypocritical IMHO. I don't really care much what people do with their bodies as long as it doesn't negatively affect others but I doubt that anybody could really make the case that using drugs/alcohol, texting, reading, etc. while driving is simply a matter of individual liberty/freedom when they have the potential to cause a lot of unnecessary carelessness and destruction.

[Mopar151]

36. " actually test for affected reflexes" is the key

And in many workplaces, if you're hurt, you'll get P-tested ON THE WAY to the emergency room, and the comp insurer won't pay if you test positive - it simply does'nt matter if you were affected or not, it's whether they can say "gotcha" and welsh on paying.
And with an addict, you are far better off with them on maintainence dose than going through withdrawal on the job. That is the gist of the posts about the steel railroad, and the drunk crane operator.

[KansDem]

5. Too bad he wasn't a banker...

He'd beat the "fraud" and "money laundering" charges...no sweat. But "drug paraphernalia" might be difficult.

[lib2DaBone]

7. So true... like when they busted Tommy Chong for selling pipes on-line..

..and sent him to federal prison.. (oh brother..)

Yet in 2008... Timmy Geithner told AIG Insurance Execs to lie about the amount of bad debt on their books and cover up BILLIONS $$$ they received illegally from the taxpayers.

Not one person in AIG, Goldman-Sachs or JP Morgan will EVER serve a day in jail.

The laws in this country apply only to the poor and middle class... not to the Elites and well-connected.

[jmowreader]

9. I wish they'd throw all those assholes in jail

All these drinks do the exact same three things:

make you piss like a racehorse, hence reducing the concentration of drug metabolites in the urine
make your urine a darker color, so it doesn't look JUST like water
add creatine metabolites to it so it fools a creatine test

If you give these assholes $40-$60 and still fail, they always fall back on "you must not have used it right, otherwise you would have passed."

If you want to see real "duck and cover" check out http://www.urineluck.com. Spectrum Labs sells a suite of products for beating drug tests, such as "Urine Luck" (you dump this shit into a sample, and it adds chromium atoms to the THC molecules. This alters the THC molecule to the point where a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer piss test machine will say "nope, it's not THC." Now tell me: is there anyone so monumentally fucking stupid they think the testing labs don't have a protocol to detect this shit? Like...well, you know, buying a bag of weed, a pack of White Owls and a Urine Luck kit?

[Fumesucker]

10. The assholes that should be in jail are the politicians that support the drug war..

Since any intelligent person who pays a modicum of attention knows the drug war is not only futile but self defeating and causes far more misery than it could ever prevent.

[BolivarianHero]

11. Concentration camps for anyone in favour of prison privatization...

They will be state-owned and their occupants will be well-treated. Good propaganda technique.

[Fumesucker]

12. Kinder, gentler concentration camps?

:)

[jmowreader]

15. So you think it's okay for criminals to rip off desperate people

Which is exactly what's going on here--the people who buy this shit know the drug war is futile and self-defeating but they really don't want to get fired because they smoked one joint last weekend buy this stuff that's supposed to be 100 Percent Sure to let them pass the test, and it doesn't work.

I wonder: if the shit doesn't work and you sue them for fraud, would you win?

[Romulox]

16. The Prohibitionists have created this cottage industry.

"I wonder: if the shit doesn't work and you sue them for fraud, would you win?"

Of course. Why not?

[Fumesucker]

17. I just think that those who perpetrated the entire cruel farce in the first place

Are far more culpable.

Alcohol prohibition lasted for thirteen years and was ended because it was clearly a failure, some drug prohibition has been going on for more than seventy years and the level of failure is orders of magnitude higher than it was with alcohol. In fact the level of failure of drug prohibition is getting to the point it is threatening the existence of governments of major countries such as Mexico and Colombia.

It's interesting to note that alcohol prohibition was basically "decriminalization" of alcohol, possession and use of alcohol were never made illegal, just importation, manufacture and sale.

[jmowreader]

18. Fine. Agreed. Let's get into a situation where we CAN repeal prohibition

And that means, as I have been saying for quite some time, a cannabis intoxication test that's more scientific than "yes, Your Honor, he looked fucked up to me."

Once we've got that, and we know how stoned "too stoned to drive" actually is, we can have legal weed.

[Fumesucker]

29. In other words you don't want it to be legal..

And I suspect it's because of who you perceive that enjoys cannabis, dirty fucking hippies.

[jmowreader]

33. No! I WANT it to be legal!

What I do NOT want is for the cops of America to change from busting "dirty fucking hippies" for simple possession (which, IIRC, is essentially a slap on the wrist in a growing number of jurisdictions) to busting them for driving while stoned...which is gonna fucking happen if we don't have a way to scientifically prove you're fucked up.

Right now we have a Marijuana Metabolite test. We all know that. Because THC metabolite is fat soluble, it embeds itself in your body and leaches out over a period of weeks--if you have a joint after dinner every night like a lot of people do with a couple of beers, you'd never be clean. Would you be high enough not to function properly on the road? Of course not--you smoke your joint, go to bed and you'd be fine in the morning. But if a cop pulls your ass over for a burned-out taillight or something, and does a drug test on you, you'll come up positive and you'll get written up for Driving Under the Influence: you were driving, you were positive for THC, your ass is grass. (Pun not intended.) And remember, they've got mouth swab tests now--a cop can put two or three of them in his patrol cap just to use on anyone he thinks is a dirty fucking hippie. (Arpaio, for one, would be overjoyed to test everyone his deputies stop.) Thanks to MADD, the penalties for a DUI are close to the penalties for a low-level felony.

Net result: although legal, the risk of getting nailed for DUI even though you're completely straight would make weed de facto off limits to everyone who likes to drive to work in the morning. If that's okay with you, go ahead and legalize it now. If, like me, you'd rather not see the cops continue to bust pot smokers for just existing, let's figure out how to detect someone who's high.

[asdjrocky]

22. Thanks for the education.

I was always curious if these worked or not, though I've never been in a position to have to use one. Not because I won't smoke a joint, but because I would never have a job where I couldn't do what I want to do on my own time.

A friend sells these at his shop and he makes a mint on them.

[jmowreader]

34. I have been told coffee is nearly as effective as a $40 strip

The strip drinks, like I said, are essentially diuretics with added agents to make your piss yellow, have specific gravity and pH consistent with urine, and contain creatine metabolites so it at least resembles urine rather than tap water. If you read the labels on that shit--and you can online--the directions all say to drink this and then drink a lot of water.

So obviously if you want to get the same effect for a LOT less money, drink lots of coffee and water and take bodybuilder's vitamins every day. The coffee is a diuretic, the water replenishes your precious bodily fluids and the vitamins will promote normal-looking piss. As a side benefit, you'll be a hell of a lot healthier.

Oh, and forget abour smoking weed if you have a job that does random urinalyses. Change to handrolled cigars. When I was still employed at the store, one of my coworkers was complaining about not being able to smoke weed. I gave her one of my Maria Mancini Magic Mountains...she came back "pot NEVER did that to me." And Maria Mancinis aren't really all that strong. Padron maduros, otoh...

[Joanne98]

14. He's a corporation let him go!

[bvar22]

20. Does that stuff work?

I've always believed it was a scam.
The best way to best drug tests is to NOT use drugs? :shrug:

Do those things work?

[asdjrocky]

21. One of my best friends owns a "smoke shop" and he sells

the stuff to fool drug tests like hotcakes. It's one of his biggest money makers.

He told me his best customer is a local army recruiter who comes in every couple of months and buys six or seven containers of the stuff, kind of makes you wonder.

[JVS]

23. LOL! The recruiter is giving it to recruits so they pass! What a delightfully absurd system.

[asdjrocky]

26. I didn't say that, but I can not control your assumptions!

Wink-wink, nudge-nudge.

[JVS]

28. You'd think they'd be able to be corrupt in an outright manner and wave people through.

[Ignis]

24. Website is "yourintheclear.com": Grammar Police Alert!

:spank:

[mopinko]

30. hey, he was stoned when he wrote that.

give'm a break. :eyes: