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Local store busted for selling products that help cheat drug tests, agents say

By Blaine Tolison, wsoctv.com
By Blaine Tolison, wsoctv.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Local businesses are being fined hundreds of dollars for selling products used to defraud drug and alcohol screening tests.

After agents said they found drug test-altering products in the The Quik-N-Eze Food Mart on West Boulevard, the store had to pay a $1,500 fine and had its alcohol permit suspended for 15 days.

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Channel 9's Blaine Tolison went to the store on West Boulevard, but the owner refused to comment on the incident.

In state paperwork, the products are referred to as adulterants sold for the purpose of defrauding drug or alcohol screening tests.

Lori Van Popering runs a lab in south Charlotte and has seen it all when it comes to cheating drug tests.

"Their protein is too high. The temperature is not right. We can catch that," said Van Popering.

Channel 9 found dozens of products sold online under the names Spectrum, Whonkey Whiz and Urine Luck.

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The Quik-N-Eze Food Mart was one of eight in North Carolina where agents said they caught employees selling the products this year, but officials worry there could be many more because local and state agents are only checking businesses that carry alcohol permits.

Last year, the products were found in 18 stores.

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Van Popering said she is aware of the products state agents find, which include fake or synthesized urine. “We had one come back that it was an animal urine," she said.

She also told Channel 9 that the chances of the products working are very low, but at least one person a week attempts to cheat a drug test at her lab alone.

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