DAYTON, Ohio — More than once while clinging to a cell phone tower hundreds of feet in the air while under the influence of heroin, cocaine or marijuana, it occurred to Chris how easy it would be to make a mistake and bring down the whole tower. Somebody could get killed.
But that didn’t stop him, just as the mandatory drug test he took to get a job working on the cell tower didn’t stop him. For that, he simply went to the city of Union, northwest of Dayton, and bought a bottle of artificial urine.
The stuff isn’t illegal, a Dayton Daily News investigation found, though some think it should be, including the Union city administrator who owns the building where it is sold. It can be used to pass drug tests for dangerous jobs such as driving heavy trucks or — with more difficulty — passing a court-ordered drug test.
“It’s common knowledge. They sell it everywhere,” Chris told the Daily News and WHIO-TV.