House Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Products Designed to Defraud Workplace Drug Tests
House Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Products Designed to Defraud Workplace Drug Tests
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Oversight and Investigations members, witnesses raise concerns about internet's role in procurement of products designed for subversion of drug tests; Walden's bipartisan legislation could help curb problem
WASHINGTON, DC - The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations today held a hearing on the subversion of workplace drug tests through the use of chemicals and products designed to alter results of urine samples. Congressman Greg Walden (R-OR), vice chairman of the Subcommittee and co-chairman of the bipartisan House Rural Health Care Coalition, last week issued subpoenas to representatives of companies that appear to be marketing such products. Each of these witnesses invoked their Fifth Amendment right, declining to answer the Subcommittee's questions.
"Ensuring that workplaces remain drug-free is in the best interest of workers' safety, public health, the economy, and national security. Subverting workplace drug tests jeopardizes all of these through decreased productivity, increased absenteeism, accidental injury and death, and violence," said Walden. "Casual or habitual use of illegal drugs cannot and should not be tolerated by employers. In my opinion, the products investigated by the Subcommittee today have no legitimate uses; their lone purpose is to deceive and defraud."
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"Today millions of Americans are able to order prescriptions from online pharmacies with little or no assurance that the medications they purchase are safe and effective," said Walden. "Potent drugs, including addictive narcotics, can be ordered without a prescription, and federal agencies are powerless to protect the American people from illegal and unethical behavior on the part of many internet pharmacies serving U.S. residents. Our legislation would establish federal regulations giving assurance to American consumers that prescriptions they purchase online are of the same quality and safety as medications purchased from neighborhood drugstores."
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http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/or02_walden/pr_050517_drugtests.html