Legal Commentary

Forging Your Urine Sample

By Eugene Volokh

From State v. Smothers (Mo. Ct. App. Nov. 17, 2009):

Robert Smothers ... was charged with one count of forgery and one count of possession of a forging instrumentality. Smothers was subject to a lawful drug test in conjunction with his bond in an unrelated matter. Upon being questioned by the police officer who administered the test, Smothers admitted to giving the police officer a false urine sample and to using a Whizzinator (a device designed to fraudulently defeat drug tests) and dehydrated urine to do so. The State charged Smothers with forgery ....

Smothers ... argues that a urine sample is not a proper subject matter upon which to base a forgery charge. Subsection 4 of the forgery statute covers ?any writing or other thing including receipts and universal product codes.? § 570.090.1(4) (emphasis added). We hold that, assuming the statute?s other elements are also met, the forgery statute is broad enough to cover any inauthentic item, including a false urine sample....

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on January 11, 2010 (boomark / email).