Friday, Feb. 2, 2007 | 7:08 a.m.
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Passing a drug test when you're using drugs is a challenge.
One woman secreted baby bottles around the house, tucked into cabinets and under sinks, a stashed supply of emergency urine, siphoned off her sober, school-aged nephew.
Another man strapped a fake bladder to his body and filled it with a synthetic version of the real thing, dyed to match.
Oh, the lengths some will go.
Because they've seen it all, officers with the Nevada Public Safety Department's parole and probation division are required to watch the collection of any specimen, and lately, the officers have had an eyeful. In a small effort to eradicate big bad meth, the department has doubled its urinalysis drug screens.
"It's just the scourge of the Earth," division spokesman J.R. Haggerty said. "The meth dragon just destroys your life."
Dramatic phrasing, but no more so than Gov. Jim Gibbons' State of the State address Jan. 22, during which the new governor announced plans to allocate $17 million "toward fighting the scourge of methamphetamine." Gibbons described the fight against the drug as "the colossal struggle of our times."
In Clark County's parole and probation office, that colossal struggle often looks more like a familiar series of small failures. Suffice it to say, the fake bladder and synthetic urine didn't pass the test. And the woman with the baby bottles? Well, even if she hadn't been caught, the specimen wouldn't have worked. They weren't warm enough.
Clark County parole and probation officers tested 2,121 felons from October to December, an increase Haggerty estimates is double the volume of years past. Of the 550 parolees and probationers who tested positive for illegal drug use in those three months, more than a third used meth.
Should felons test positive for meth, their parole or probation officers will likely conduct an immediate search of their cars, and subsequent search of their houses. These immediate searches are new, a second prong of parole and probation's anti-meth initiative.
In recent weeks, Haggerty says, the sudden searches have paid off.
After a man tested positive for meth Jan. 9, his probation officer conducted a search of his home and discovered 6.5 grams of meth, enough to warrant trafficking charges. During the search, the officers also found four rifles, 40 knives, five swords, forged driving permits and a "bucket of ammo."
On Jan. 17 a man tested during his first meeting with a probation officer came up positive for meth. The man denied he used drugs, but within minutes, the test proved otherwise. When officers searched his car, parked just outside, they discovered more than 7 grams of meth stashed inside.
"We're pushing the testing more," Haggerty said. "And right off the bat, this is the kind of stuff we're finding," he said.
If parole and probation officers find themselves searching the home of a parent using meth, Child Protective Services will be contacted, possibly to collect children. Parole and probation has always worked to protect children from dangerous home environments, although contacting Child Protective Services during the immediate house searches is a decidedly more aggressive approach for the agency. Of the 550 parolees and probationers who tested positive for illegal drug use last fall, Child Protective Services was called 22 times.
One week, parole and probation officers had to stop testing altogether - they were running so many drug tests that they ran out of cups.
What happens after a person tests positive, the third prong of parole and probation's anti-meth initiative, depends on the circumstances and the user. Someone who has been warned several times might immediately be arrested and charged anew. Another person might be forced to attend drug counseling for the first time, or attend more drug counseling than already required. No matter the circumstance, parolees and probationers can assume the penalties will be harsher and quicker, Haggerty said.
"What you try to do is click off all the boxes," Haggerty said. "You try everything you can, so when you take the guy back to the judge, you can say, 'It isn't working. We tried this, it didn't work. We tried that, it didn't work. Send this guy back.' "
Of the 550 parolees and probationers who tested positive for illegal drug use, two were rearrested and 159 were sent for additional counseling.
Printed toward the bottom of a sheet parolees and probationers must fill out during meetings with their supervising officers, the department has added a new warning, written in italics and anchored with heavy asterisks:
"If You Use Methamphetamine There are Consequences."
It's a threat that still rattles only a slim sampling of meth users. Nevada has the highest percentage of meth users per population in the nation, with more than 10 percent of people older than 12 reporting to have used the drug at least once , according to a study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Parole and probation only deals with people "on paper," Haggerty says, meaning those Nevada residents with records. There's no accounting for, and no testing, people who haven't been caught.
"We have some authority over these folks, so we're really jumping on them and trying to clean up," Haggerty said. 'We're trying to get a handle on it as best we can."
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