DICKINSON, N.D. - Area drug users carrying around other people's urine or synthetic urine is becoming an issue, officials say.
"We see it on average probably two times a month where somebody will have urine," Dickinson Police Capt. David Wilkie said. "It's a problem."
Authorities said some drug users buy urine to pass testing, and that's when carrying urine becomes illegal.
"You can walk around with urine in your pocket if you want to," Wilkie said. "If I can show that you are supposed to be drug tested and you have somebody else's pee, then that makes it illegal."
Purposely defrauding a urine test for drugs could land a person in prison for a year with a $2,000 fine.
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"It says they're guilty of a Class A misdemeanor if the person knowingly possesses, distributes or assists in the use of a device, chemical or real or artificial urine advertised or intended to be used to alter the outcome of a urine test," Tom Henning, Stark County state's said of state law. "It doesn't say in the law that if you possess it you're presumed to be having it for this purpose, and that would be an unconstitutional presumption."
However, he said it's hard to imagine why else a person might be carrying a human urine sample around if not to pass a drug test.
"We've been advised of more incidents of it to where two or three years ago I hadn't heard much of it," Henning said. "That doesn't mean it never happened, but from the information we're getting, it is more common."
A person can also legally sell their urine, so long as they can prove it wasn't sold to help somebody pass a drug or alcohol test, Henning said.
"You can buy that stuff over the Internet," Wilkie added.
He said instances are likely increasing because more companies are requiring their employees to furnish a urine sample.
"It's going to be more of a problem because ... a lot of the oil companies are urine testing," Wilkie said.
Jan Kuhn, clinical director of Sacajawea Substance Abuse Counseling and Drug Testing Center, said her employees follow their clients into the bathroom to be sure they didn't bring someone else's urine.
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"You have to get right down there and look," she said. "You can't hide it under your arm and use a tube because if you're being observed, we're going to find it. We're going to see it."
