'Boy in the Box' cop says he's clean (alleged cocaine)

A highly regarded homicide detective who tested positive for cocaine last week and then retired said yesterday that he has never used illegal drugs, but was forced to leave the police department because he could not fight the drug-test result.

Thomas Augustine, who is 60 and said he takes two medications for high blood pressure, was informed Dec. 14 that he came up "hot" for cocaine. He submitted for retirement the next day.

"I've never used drugs," he said.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/16303312.htm

I can't help but wonder if this man's test results were mixed up with someone else's. I can't imagine (maybe I am naive) why anyone at his age and with his record would become involved in illegal drugs. Other thoughts?

I remember being told long ago that Advil, well ANY ibuprofen, comes up on a UA (urine analysis) as THC, which is marijuana. I don't know if it's true or not---but I do know of a guy who smoked pot and he had to do a drug test and he passed. He wrote down that he had been taking Advil.

julianne said:

I remember being told long ago that Advil, well ANY ibuprofen, comes up on a UA (urine analysis) as THC, which is marijuana. I don't know if it's true or not---but I do know of a guy who smoked pot and he had to do a drug test and he passed. He wrote down that he had been taking Advil.

Click to expand...

This is not true for the vast majority of recognized, accepted urine screen tests.

I agree, NSAIDs (Advil, Ibuprofen, Motrin) do NOT show up as THC on urine tests!

Also, this gentleman couls submit a hair sample for hair analysis testing that would show any and all drugs used (or not used) over the past 3-6 months if he wants to clear this up. The hair tests are able to detect cocaine, among other drugs.

But his lawyer would most likely have already told him this.

OK, I CAN'T GET THE CAPS OFF YET....LOL///


SHE'S BEAUTIFUL..SMOKES A PACK DAY, WAIT, THAT'S ME
...I CAN T GET THE CAPS OFF....LOL
\

PULLS HER HAIR BACK, AS SHE SCREAMS.... :dance:

I Can't Get This Off??


YEAH....

Most likely this man's lawyer has told him about the hair test mentioned above, but the retiring policeman is 60 years old and a prolonged fight over this would be extremely stressful and not really worth it at his age. Many police officers do not work until age 60, but retire much earlier for various reasons.

The hospital department in which I worked terminated the jobs of 4 women over age 50 all in the same week. Sheer coincidence? Sure! A court fight against such a large institution would have taken much $$$$ and way too much stress, and even if they were successful, they would probably have been of retirement age by the time it was settled anyway. Would the possible $$$$ settlement have been worth it? Not to me. Maybe that's the way this man felt, who knows?

But why have one's highly respected career end on such a down note when there is an easy way - a hair analysis test - to end any speculation?

Perhaps the now-retired officer will do just this and then share the results so that at least his fellow officers will know the results.

By the way, in the accompanying article, there is a statement "the cocaine level was very high". This statement indicates that the amount of the substance was "quantified", meaning the urine specimen was shipped off to a lab and a gas chromatology test was performed. This type of testing is very accurate, as opposed to "on-site" tests where a "dip stick" type of technology is used. The on-site tests cannot quantify the amount of the substance, just show presence or absence of certain metabolytes in the urine.

The hair analysis tests also cannot quantify, but are very accurate for detecting the stored metabolytes. Also, any body hair can be used, doesn't have to be from the head - can be from armpit, chest, leg or....wherever!

Opie said:

I can't help but wonder if this man's test results were mixed up with someone else's. I can't imagine (maybe I am naive) why anyone at his age and with his record would become involved in illegal drugs. Other thoughts?

Click to expand...

Looking at reviewed literature (not blurbs on "passyourdrugtest.com) on Pubmed from the National Library of Medicine, things are looking bad for our boy. The article spilling the beans implies there were two tests, and I assume the confirmatory was a more specific, and costly, test. For substances giving false positives on tiered tests, passive contact with and passive inhalation of cocaine are all I could find in my first runthrough. My common sense tells me there have to be more; I'll keep looking