STEAL THIS URINE TEST: Fighting Drug Hysteria in America

by Abbie with Jonathan Silvers Hoffman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 6, 1987

Activist Hoffman and co-author Silvers savage compulsory urine testing in this high-spirited but trenchant examination of current government and business drug policies. Hoffman begins gingerly: he's not pro-drug, but against drug panic. He's brave enough to state that limited drug use by mature individuals may even be defensible. But ""the very concept of responsible drug use drives Enforcers absolutely berserko"" (the Enforcers being the government, or the ""fundamentalist crusaders,"" or any of the current repressive forces in America); thus, Hoffman is attempting to educate his readership to the perils of the urine test. For one, the most popular of the tests (EMIT) has a 14% rate of error. For another, most of the tests tend to suffer from ""cross-reactivity,"" where one substance is confused with another. (A couple of Navy doctors tested positive for morphine--it turned out their addiction was to the hospital cafeteria's poppy-seed bagels). Hoffman concludes with detailed instructions on how to foil a compulsory urine test at your workplace (from ""be-in to pee-in""): where you can get ""pure"" urine, how to confound the technicians, etc. Despite a certain amount of rhetoric about drugs and the occasional factual error (the N.Y.C. neighborhood where Senator Alfonse D'Amato and US Attorney Rudolph Giuliani made a highly-publicized ""undercover"" drug buy is misidentified by about 60 blocks), this is a breath of fresh air in an area smogged by hysteria.

Pub Date: Oct. 6, 1987

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Penquin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1987

Categories: NONFICTION