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Reporter's Notebook: Steve Young

Coca tea defense OK for failed drug test

Posted by Steve Young - June 14, 2004 at 4:54 pm
The Chicago Sun-Times carries a story today about the employee of a local law enforcement agency who was reinstated to her job after a failed drug test. She claimed the use of coca tea, which she first obtained during a trip to Peru, caused the positive test falsely.

But last week, the Illinois Court of Appeals ruled Garrido should not have lost her job in 2001 because the positive test result probably didn't come from cocaine, but instead from the tea she'd been drinking.

Garrido, the wife of a Chicago narcotics officer, said she drank "a significant amount" of the coca-tinged tea, which she got from Peru, just before her drug test.

Though the sheriff's merit board didn't buy it -- and fired her -- the judges ruled the small traces of cocaine metabolites in Garrido's system were more likely to have come from tea than drugs.

Anyone concerned about a future drug test, plenty of coca tea suppliers sell their wares on the internet. Just Google it, and be prepared to drink a "significant amount" (or at least say you did) when the time comes. And, it might not hurt to marry a narcotics officer.

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