Sunday, October 17, 2010

THE URINE TEST


The old stories are sometimes the best and anyone who has ever been involved in drug and alcohol programs has heard this story, here used in Three Seconds by Roslund and Hellstrom, in one form or another.
[Although during my own membership of a special professional panel on drug and alcohol abuse our main concern was those dentists who thought that six cans of strong lager for breakfast was a suitably nourishing start to the day.]

Every day in every prison, every waking hour was about drugs: how to get them in, and how to use them without it being discovered by the regular urine tests. A relative who came to visit was also a relative who could be forced to smuggle in some urine, their own, urine that was clean and would test negative.
Once in his first few weeks in Osteraker, some mouthy Serb got his girlfriend to piss into a couple of mugs, the content of which was then sold for a great deal of money. None of them tested positive, despite the fact that more than half of them were under the influence, but the tests did show something else, and that was that every man in the unit was pregnant.

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Norman - This just goes to show how important it is to think of all of the details - like a pregnancy test...

1:55 PM  
Blogger Uriah Robinson said...

Margot, Three Seconds is full of interesting details. ;o)

2:28 PM  
Blogger Dorte H said...

Yes, I had heard it, but not for years, and I enjoyed reading it again :D

2:58 PM  
Anonymous kathy d. said...

Wow, you really expose dentists, especially the drinking issue, and other infractions in other posts.

Should I now fear taking my life in my hands when I go to the dentist? It's hard enough to get there, but now with substance abuse, ethical infractions, etc.

What is a person with dental problems to do?

8:10 PM  
Blogger Maxine Clarke said...

It is hard, when all the best ones have retired, Kathy!

4:29 AM  
Blogger Uriah Robinson said...

Kathy I think you are safe.
I knew a lot of dentists and doctors in my working life, but when two of the best have been in front of the medical and dental councils recently, I wonder if I am going mad.

Thanks Maxine, one boringly honest dentist did retire in 2003, but he was not one of the best.
He did try to be though.

8:17 AM  
Anonymous kathy d. said...

Good to hear, as I have an infected wisdom tooth I have procrastinated about taking care of, and it just now has started to hurt. So I am relieved to hear I'm safe.

Let us know how you like "The Facility," in which a "innocent" dentist is a character.

Sounds like you were a very conscientious dentist, which means a good one.

8:03 PM  
Blogger Maxine Clarke said...

Trying one's best is all one can do, Norman. And I am sure you are too modest.

10:28 AM  

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