Reporter's Notebook

Just say no

In researching the prevalence of substance abuse in the workplace, I came across some alarming statistics, but I also became aware of the alarming lengths some workers go to get away with drug use.

Even if a workplace has drug testing in its policy, there are more than 1,300 drug masking agents easily available online – and they work, said Terry Johnson, president of the Vancouver franchise of AccuDiagnostics drug, alcohol and background screening.

The good news, he told me, is that testing labs are quick about finding ways to detect adulterants.

However, workers can be even craftier. Products like the Whizzinator – a prosthetic genital device for men and women worn as a belt to pump out clean urine kept at the right temperature by hand warmers – keeps testers who are at times required to watch workers do their business on their toes.

Other workers have been known to self-catheterize or inject clean urine into the walls of their bladders with syringes.

Which leads me to question – wouldn’t it just be easier not to do drugs?

-Megan Patrick-Vaughn can be reached at mpatrick@vbjusa.com