By Kiyoshi Tomono
Daily Bruin Contributor
As a student athlete on the UCLA swim team for the past three
years, Lyndee Hovsepian has become as accustomed to the random drug
test as much as she has to midterms.
The tests, which are standard for athletes in nearly all sports
at the intercollegiate level, are more a nuisance for Hovsepian
than a worry.
“You have to go in between 8 and 10 in the morning,”
Hovsepian said. “They give you a paper the day before
you’re drug tested, and the next morning you have to pee in
the bathroom in front of somebody.”
In the world of athletic competition, bathroom monitors have
become a necessary evil to prevent athletes from altering their
urine samples before it is analyzed.
At the heart of the drug testing problem are individuals who try
to circumvent the urine drug screen for such drugs as marijuana and
steroids, often by taking supplements, exchanging the sample for
drug-free urine, or adding contaminants to the test.
Hovsepain said among UCLA athletes, cheating on drug tests is
relatively rare.
“Most athletes are aware of the tests, want to perform,
and won’t go taking (drugs),” Hovsepian said.
“Most athletes are really clean, so it’s not a
problem.”
Officials aren’t taking any chances, though.
The UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory, directed by Don Catlin,
is one of only two labs in the world charged with testing such
world-class athletes for drug use.
Of the NCAA, Olympic, and NFL athletes he tests, Catlin said the
presence of marijuana in athletes’ samples is rare.
He said tests for marijuana and similar drugs are based on a
chemical procedure known as an immunoassay.
“Immunoassay is a screening test that can be done very
rapidly and with a very high volume (of samples),” Catlin
said. “You just load the samples onto a moving belt sort of
affair, and a few minutes later, out comes the answer.”
Catlin said the science of immunoassay relies on the basic
immune responses of lab animals like rabbits or mice, which produce
antibodies for a major constituent of marijuana known as
Tetrahydrocanna-binol, or THC. Antibodies, which are made of
Y-shaped proteins in series, can then be used to identify the
presence of such drugs as marijuana.
“They put together kits with these antibodies and some
sort of labeled marijuana so when they run the test, if the
marijuana is in the urine, it will inhibit the reaction and show as
positive,” Catlin said.
But this same specificity, Catlin said, makes the immunoassay
urine test specifically susceptible to tampering.
“I’ve read about companies that make products that
try to interfere with the antibody reaction and kills off the
antibody,” Catlin said. “If you did that, the test
would show up negative.”
The problem seen in the athletic world is one that has also
flowed into the employment realm, where employers use drug screens
for both hiring and firing practices.
The result has been expanding competition between the companies
producing simple, on-site drug screens for employers and firms
selling substances to tamper with them.
According to Jerry Ramsey, whose Irvine-based biotech company
sells millions of do-it-yourself drug screen kits to companies and
government agencies each year, business has been booming.
The tests, based on the more sophisticated laboratory procedures
employed by Catlin in his lab, require a few minutes and a few
drops of urine placed on a plastic cassette.
“What happens with all these devices is the urine specimen
is dissolved on a wick, and through some chemical process, readings
are made,” Ramsey said. “One set of values tells you
whether the device is working, and the other, whether or not
it’s negative.”
But while Ramsey has made a business out of catching possible
drug users in the act, a whole industry of online brokers and
brick-and-mortar retailers have made their money trying to do just
the opposite.
Marketing such products as herbal supplements, test
contaminants, and even drug-free urine, such companies expressly
set out to help buyers beat drug tests.
The products are offensive, according to George Runner,
R-Lancaster, who on Tuesday submitted a bill, AB154, to make the
sale of such products illegal in the state of California.
“Employers spend millions of dollars every year in lost
time, accidents and worker compensation costs due to drug
use,” Runner said in a statement. “Allowing these
drug-masking kits to continue to be sold is
irresponsible.”
But Mason Zelazny, a representative for the online company that
sells 1-Stop Detox, said such products may actually benefit the
taker. Zelazny said his product is really a three step program,
which in addition to helping a person pass a drug test, will
eventually help them get clean.
“There are always individuals who try to beat the system
and companies that will try and get you through it,” Zelazny
said. “We don’t offer magic pills that you put into
your urine ““ we’re trying to change their
lifestyle.”
CHANGING THE TEST Assembly bill154, proposed by
George Runner ,R-Lancaster, would penalize individuals who attempt
to doctor their urine drug test (with baking soda, for example) to
obtain a negative result. This bill passed the Assembly Public
Safety Committee of the California Legislature Thursday. SOURCE:
California Legislature Original graphic by ADAM BROWN/Daily Bruin
Web adaptation by REX LORENZO