Legislation targets use of synthetic urine to fool drug tests
If the Ohio House follows suit, a bill passed Feb. 12 by the Ohio Senate would ban the use of synthetic or substitute urine to fool a drug test.
In a unanimous win for Senate Bill 216, the chamber voted to stop the increasingly popular practice and outlaw what they see as a problem with the drug-testing system.
“You can buy it anywhere,” Sen. Theresa Gavarone, who sponsored the bill, said in a recent interview. “Some of these employees are driving school buses or semi trucks or using heavy machinery.”
Many companies test their employees for a variety of substances from methamphetamine or opiates to nicotine. Individuals on probation are also commonly required to submit to drug tests.
Research indicates that drug use on the job is common. According to a 2018 survey of 1,000 Americans by detox.com, workers in the retail industry, at 14%, were the most likely to use an illicit drug while on the job.
But a significant percentage of workers in health care, 6.4%, and education, 7.1%, also reported using drugs at work.
Gavarone, a Republican from Bowling Green, said a Wood County judge brought her attention to the practice, telling her about a man on probation who had passed a required drug test.
Gavarone said the judge, however, was not pleased.
“The good news is your test is clean,” Gavarone said the judge told him. “The bad news is, sir, that you are pregnant.” Gavarone’s legislation also targets the swapping of another person’s urine to pass a test and the use of urine additives designed to mask illicit drug usage. She said the practice is familiar to officials in the judicial system.
“The courts see it all the time, which is why the judge brought it to my attention,” she said.
In a news release announcing the unanimous passage of S.B. 156, Ohio Senate President Larry Obhof, a Medina Republican, said at least 18 states have already passed laws to ban the sale, possession or use of synthetic urine.
Obhof said individuals who cheat on drug testing put the safety of their co-workers and other at risk.
One of the nation’s leading suppliers of the product is an Ohio company.
Spectrum Labs, which lists a post office box number as its address, is a Cincinnati-area company that manufactures “Quick Fix,” a product designed to assure negative urine test results.
The company has been offering its products since at least 1992, when it introduced “Urine Luck” to the market.
According to a 2004 article in the Cincinnati Post, businessman Matt Stephens founded the company in 1992. In an interview for the article, Stephens argued that nearly all purchasers of his product used marijuana and not “dangerous drugs.” He likened employer drug tests to a violation of privacy.
Rep. Anthony DeVitis, a Republican from Green who is assistant majority floor leader in the Ohio House, did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Sen. Kristina Roegner, a Hudson Republican whose district covers Wayne County and parts of Summit and Stark counties, was one of the bill’s many co-sponsors.
Roegner said in a recent interview that the bill targets only synthetic human urine. That’s significant because hunters sometimes use fake animal urine to lure prey.
Roegner said she’s hopeful the Ohio House will move to pass the legislation.
“I don’t anticipate any opposition,” Roegner said. “Who would oppose the ban of synthetic urine?”