Pittsburg Prosecutor Declares New War on "Masking Products" that Help People Pass Urine Drug Tests

Five years after taking the lead in "Operation Pipe Dreams," which prosecuted people who sold marijuana pipes around the country, U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan is leading a similar investigation called "Operation True Test."

The newest project for Ms. Buchanan is looking into companies that sell "masking products" that are supposed to help drug-users pass employer drug tests.

Opponents of the products contend that they can put the public at risk if a person like an airline pilot were to use them to hide drugs in his system. The products are regulated on a state-by-state basis; there is no federal law covering them.

But critics, including comedian Tommy Chong, whom Ms. Buchanan prosecuted as part of Operation Pipe Dreams, say this is just another example of a frivolous prosecution and misplaced priorities.

"The terrorists crash into her area, and she's concentrating on porn and bongs," Mr. Chong said, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001, crash of United Flight 93 in Somerset County. "That kind of tells you the direction she's headed."

Search warrants for Operation True Test were served Wednesday at nine locations in six states -- though none in Ms. Buchanan's Western District of Pennsylvania.

"We have no idea what the connection to Pittsburgh is," said Jennifer Kinsley, the attorney for Spectrum Labs, whose Newport, Ky., offices were searched.

Another target was the business in Signal Hill, Calif., that makes The Whizzinator, a prosthetic penis in which clean urine is stored to be used to beat drug tests monitored by an observer.

Spectrum Labs makes a number of masking products, including one known as Urine Luck, a liquid that is added to urine to purify it.