What would New York City's sewer system say about its residents? We'd prefer not going there, but Boing Boing is pointing us to this article about sewer sampling revealing patterns of drug use, noting that in Oslo, the drug ecstasy spiked in the sewers around the time of high school graduation! Other drugs found there included cocaine and Zyrtec. more ›

The NYPD tow truck operator who claimed a cop gave him a revenge ticket says he was ordered to take a drug test soon after his allegations became public—and the timing is suspect! "They're being vindictive," Marvin Robbins said, referring to Officer David Moshier, the NYPD, the Secret Service, the Judicial Branch, perhaps the President himself! Is Robbins the man who knows too much, or is he the man who talks too much? All NYPD employees are subject to random drug testing, but Robbins is suspicious, and thinks it's purely malicious in this case. Basically, either Robbins is a very paranoid union official with a persecution complex, or the latest in a lineage of Serpico-types unfairly bullied by the NYPD. Some conspiracies are true! more ›

A rookie cop is suing to be reinstated to the NYPD after he was fired in March for testing positive for cocaine. Alvaro Casado insists he's no coke fiend, he just made the mistake of drinking a cup of Mate de Coca tea the night before he was tested. The South American tea is made from coca leaves and has been known to show up on drug screenings; one study found an average of 4.14 mg of cocaine in a cup of Peruvian coca tea. (No caffeine, though!) more ›

Joseph Kinneary, the “shy peerer” fired by the city for failing to whiz in a cup, won’t get his $225,000 wrongful termination damages after all. In 2004 when the former Department of Environmental Protection employee claimed his paruresis (aka shy bladder) kept him from completing a mandatory drug test and led to his firing, a judge ruled in his favor, citing the Americans with Disabilities Act. But the Post reports that, in an affront to shy bladder sufferers everywhere, the decision has been reversed, based on pure technicalities. more ›

The NYPD has issued a memo forbidding its officers from using anabolic steroids as well as 21 legal and widely available supplements at the risk of "disciplinary action" [Pdf]. Many products on the list are used to build muscle and lose weight, reports MYFOXNY. We want our cops lean and strong, so what's the problem? more ›

We're sure that one Long Island father thought to himself, "If I can't use my for a urine test, I'll use my child's urine..." when he decided to take his 9-year-old out of school. The problem is, Suffolk police officers happened to be passing by the deli where the 36-year-old father and son were and became suspicious when they saw "the child fixing his pants and watched as the father poured something from a coffee... more ›