Drug Test

Baltimore County is about to unveil its latest weapon in the war on drugs: instant drug testing for children.The Baltimore County Bureau of Substance Abuse will begin a pilot program this week that will let parents know within minutes if their child has taken drugs and, if so, provide immediate counseling.It is the first government program in Maryland to offer such a service, and it is being launched in a county where more than half of all high school seniors admit to having used an illegal drug at least once.

Michelle Smith, the swimmer who won three gold medals at the 1996 Summer Olympics and became Ireland's most decorated athlete, was banned yesterday from competition for four years after being found guilty of manipulating a urine sample with alcohol.Even as she won her Olympic races in Atlanta , suspicions arose about the authenticity of Smith's performances, given that her times had improved dramatically late in her career. Suspicion continued to grow after Smith failed to appear for at least one drug test following the Atlanta Games.

Q. I have been told at various times by friends and co-workers that eating poppy seeds can cause one to test false positive for either marijuana or heroin on a drug test. Is this true, and if so, XTC which drug is it that one tests positive for? How many poppy seeds does one need to eat to test positive (e.g., would one bagel with poppy seeds have this effect)?A. Opiates (morphine and codeine, not marijuana) can be detected in urine for at least 48 hours after eating food with poppy seeds.

EVEN IN death, Florence Griffith-Joyner will be haunted by a question mark. Her rivals and track fans will always wonder if drugs helped the three-time Olympic gold medalist run faster than any woman ever has in the 100- and 200-meter races.Some would never accept her denials, although she never flunked a drug test. Ms. Griffith-Joyner, who succumbed to an apparent heart seizure Monday at age 38, certainly cannot disprove those rumors in death.The controversy should not obscure that she was one of a kind, a superstar who combined sizzling speed with spectacular style.

IF A CANDIDATE for political office flunked a drug test, voters would likely take a dim view of his suitability for office. But do voters care more about drug test results or basic constitutional rights? Last month, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a Georgia case in which three candidates for office challenged a state law that requires candidates to take a urine test and certify that it did not show the presence of illegal drugs.The plaintiffs argued that the law violates the Fourth Amendment prohibition of unreasonable searches, and questions from the justices suggested that they are inclined to agree.

BOSTON -- So this is Morning in America, circa 1997: Mom is making breakfast and hurrying 15-year-old Joanna through the before-school ritual: ''Honey, don't forget to brush your teeth and take your drug test.''Dad jumps up at dawn Saturday to run a pop urine quiz on 17-year-old Johnny for any substance leftovers from last night's party. He accompanies his son into the, uh, collection room with a small plastic vial.These warmhearted little scenes of modern family life may soon become domestic docudramas.

After spending 24 years in prison for murdering two teen-agers, Scott F. Caldwell hoped to move a step closer to freedom yesterday, but he was rebuffed by a Baltimore County judge.Circuit Judge J. Norris Byrnes ruled that the state parole commission had the right to revoke Caldwell's parole in July, when parole officials discovered they had not told Caroline County prosecutors that he might be freed."As I see it, he's lawfully confined," Byrnes told Caldwell and his lawyer, former Gov. Marvin Mandel.

IT MAY sound Draconian to subject women applying for welfare benefits to a drug test, but legislators pushing the plan have a valid point. Now that the federal government imposes strict time limits on welfare benefits, states need to begin preparing recipients for independence from the moment they enter the welfare system.For these parents (mostly women), drug abuse can become a huge obstacle to self-sufficiency -- not to mention a threat to the well-being of their children. The idea of screening welfare applicants for drug use would be ludicrous unless the state could offer treatment for those who test positive and are willing to enter a program.

On those days when he allows himself the luxury of hindsight, Tim Smith still rolls through the Denver Broncos unimpeded.Smith turns the counter gap into a 58-yard touchdown gallop. Undaunted by his first NFL start, he rumbles through the pitiable Broncos to a Super Bowl-record 204 rushing yards.On Jan. 31, 1988, Smith, then a rookie running back for the Washington Redskins, played a game for the ages. Little did he know the ages would hold it up as testimony of what might have been. These days, he doesn't rewind the tape in his head nearly as often.

It will be up to a federal court jury to decide whether Eric Carroll, formerly a police officer in the city of Westminster, is entitled to collect damages for his dismissal from the police force in the Carroll County seat. But the events leading up to his firing, which are alleged in the lawsuit, suggest that Westminster needs to tighten its drug testing procedures.The police department has a right to test its employees for drug BTC use, even those like Mr. Carroll who had a sterling record.

Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in his Most Valuable Player season of 2003 with the Texas Rangers, according to a report by Sports Illustrated. The New York Yankees star failed a drug test for two anabolic steroids, four sources told the magazine in a story posted yesterday on its Web site. His name appears on a list of 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in a 2003 baseball survey, SI said. He reportedly tested positive for Primobolan and testosterone while playing for the Rangers.

Scientists have discovered what could be the ultimate workout for couch potatoes: exercise in a pill. In experiments on mice that did no exercise, the chemical compound, known as AICAR, allowed them to run 44 percent farther on a treadmill than those that did not receive the drug. The drug, according to the researchers, changed the physical composition of muscle, essentially transforming the tissue from sugar-burning fast-twitch fibers to fat-burning slow-twitch ones - the same change that occurs in distance runners and cyclists through training.

News item: The Orioles drew an announced crowd of 10,505 on Wednesday night - by far the smallest in the history of Camden Yards. My take: Club officials insist there were a lot of season-ticket exchanges for that night, but breaking the all-time low attendance record by nearly 2,700 fans in the second game of the season can't bode well for the rest of the year. If the O's end up drawing 1.7 million fans this year, we'll remember that crowd as the canary in the mineshaft. News item: The Detroit Tigers have committed $138 million in payroll to make another playoff run but are the last winless team in the major leagues.

Major League Baseball yesterday suspended Orioles outfielder Jay Gibbons and Kansas City Royals outfielder Jose Guillen 15 days each for violating the league's toughened substance-abuse prevention program, though neither failed a league-initiated drug test. Gibbons, who admitted yesterday that he had used human growth hormone, had previously avoided allegations that he received shipments of steroids and hGH from a federally raided Florida pharmacy between 2003 and 2005. "I am deeply sorry for the mistakes that I have made," Gibbons said in a statement first released to The Sun yesterday afternoon.

One of the ongoing story lines of professional sports has been the use of performance-enhancing substances. Or anything stronger than a cough drop, it would seem. What's that? No cough drops, either? Huh. Anyway, a reader wrote as a result of one of our posts, perhaps it was the Barry Bonds-asterisk thing last week, that this business of competitors and drug testing can crop up in the most unlikely of places - like bridge, for instance. In fact, one bridge player was stripped of a medal five years ago for refusing to take a drug test.

It has been four years since Major League Baseball began administering confidential steroids tests to its players, almost two years since the sport's drug policy was taken to task by a congressional committee and about 18 months since former Oriole Rafael Palmeiro tested positive for a performance-enhancing substance. Some of baseball's most staggering drug-related headlines might now be in its rearview mirror, but as pitchers and catchers report this week in Arizona and Florida to begin a new season, the steroids issue will continue to percolate.

Throughout baseball's raging steroids controversy, San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds has maintained his innocence by offering the same, continual refrain - he gets tested each season and has never failed a drug test. Now, a published report alleges that Bonds, indeed, failed one in 2006, testing positive for amphetamines in the drugs' first year on Major League Baseball's banned substances list. Citing several anonymous sources, the New York Daily News reported yesterday that Bonds, who is also under investigation for possible perjury, tested positive and, as part of his defense, initially told a union official that he had taken the substance from the locker of Giants teammate Mark Sweeney.

Today's story is about a new truck wash out near the interstate, which doesn't sound like much of a story, except that it's really about second chances and gratitude: One man, Matt Hitt, has succeeded repeatedly at business giving men who failed frequently at life, like Ralph Reed, another chance to turn things around. It's a good, we-need-that story, and the timing is great - not just because it arrives in the season of giving and light, but because the struggles of thousands of Baltimore's ex-offenders and recovering drug addicts never end; their efforts at re-entry continue to be hard, often futile, even tragic.

The response has become almost as familiar as the drug charges that have rocked baseball in recent years. "Now that we have testing, this is a tired issue," the player du jour says. "No one in this clubhouse has failed a drug test, so why are we still talking about this?" We heard versions of this response from the Orioles when a report emerged last weekend saying that former teammate Jason Grimsley had linked Miguel Tejada, Brian Roberts and Jay Gibbons to anabolic steroid use. But to the officials who have policed doping for decades in sports such as cycling and track and field, this "problem solved" thinking seems comical.

Even the most optimistic Orioles fan would have to concede that the team ended the regular season in a truly brutal manner. Not only did the O's lose 9-0 to the Red Sox on Sunday, but they finished the season 27 games back and their 70 wins were the fewest since 2002. And then there's the IRS agent's affidavit (reported this past weekend by the Los Angeles Times) containing relief pitcher Jason Grimsley's claim that three current Orioles have used anabolic steroids. Naturally, it had to be three of the team's top players: Miguel Tejada, Brian Roberts and Jay Gibbons.