DRUG OFFENDERS QUESTION PATCH USED BY COURTS

Accused participants say device is returning false-positive results

GREENVILLE - Some Greenville County drug court participants say a patch designed to test whether offenders have used drugs in the past two weeks is faulty.

Prosecutors say the patch works and if participants continue to question it, they may shut down the entire program meant to give drug offenders an alternative to prison.

Offenders in drug court must plead guilty to all the crimes they are charged with.  Their sentences are suspended until they complete the 18-month treatment program.  If they fail, they usually go to prison.

The so-called "sweat patch" is placed on the arm or back for seven to 14 days.  The patch is then sent to a lab, which tests for drugs including cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and marijuana, prosecutor Betty Strom said.

But three people who may be kicked out of the program in part for testing positive to drugs said the results were false.  They have argued about the patch's reliability before a judge and asked to be let back in the program.

The manufacturer of the patch said it has been upheld by judges at the local, state and federal level.

Opponents said residue from drugs used by others can seep into the patch.  They say urine tests may be more accurate.

But Strom said if someone uses drugs the day the patch is put on, it wouldn't show up on a urine test done two weeks later.

Since the drug court started using the patch, 910 have been applied and 57 have tested positive, Strom said.

Of the 57, four people didn't admit to using drugs or their results weren't confirmed by another test, she said.

The mother of one of the men fighting the patch said drug court has helped her 37-year-old son get off drugs.  She said she would hate to see him end up in prison because the patch was faulty.

"It is too unreliable to be relied on to take people's lives away from them," Carolyn Perkins.

But participation in the program is voluntary and the drug court is fair, even with an occasional false-positive, because it provides the same opportunities to everyone, said Bob Arial, chief prosecutor for Greenville and Pickens counties.

"This is a program that serves criminals," he said.  "These people are criminals first and drug addicts second.  Therefore, when they go into the program they do so through the grace of the solicitor's office and in my view they will follow whatever rules the program or the solicitor's office deems appropriate."