MOM LEADS BID TO BAN KITS TO FOOL DRUG TESTS.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - What really scares Lisa Williams about ``flush kits'' is that school bus drivers - even police officers - could be high on drugs Sunday night and test clean at work Monday morning.

What pushed her to fight for a new law against the kits was teen-age kids, like her own son, who could thwart home drug tests with a $20 cleansing kit available in the back room of her neighborhood vitamin store.

``How can we morally and ethically allow this?'' Williams said last week. ``Paramedics, doctors, teachers - they could all do drugs on their day off, and then take this kit in case there's random drug testing at work.''

Williams is the force behind Assembly Bill 154, which would prohibit manufacturers from claiming that their product guarantees negative results in drug tests. The bill is scheduled for a hearing April 17 before the Assembly Public Safety Committee.

Williams learned about flush kits - available at ``head shops'' and some vitamin stores - during a meeting she attended after turning her son in for using marijuana. A group leader urged parents to drug test their teens at home, but a parent asked how effective testing was when products were available to mask the results, she said.

She did her research, recruited family members to gather a few hundred names on petitions and went to Assemblyman George Runner, R-Lancaster, for help. Runner, whose district covers Santa Clarita, came up with AB154.

``Our concern is simply that there needs to be integrity in drug testing in the state,'' Runner said during a recent visit to the district. ``We do drug tests for parolees, on some employees, and the private sector relies on them to protect their goods and services.

``If all of a sudden there is this effort to mask the outcome, it really threatens the process ... and the public.''

Opposition comes from the American Civil Liberties Union, the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice and marijuana advocacy groups.

Scott Ciment, a legislative advocate for the attorneys' group, predicted the bill would fail, in part because it limits the manufacturers' free speech.

``Whenever you try to regulate commercial speech, it's difficult,'' Ciment said. ``It's more of a message statement by the Legislature.''

Ciment also said legislation was unnecessary. Drug tests, he said, have become sophisticated enough to show whether the patient has tried to mask results.

``The irony is that people who think these products work are more likely to be caught,'' Ciment said.