cover image Steal This Urine Test: Fighting Drug Hysteria in America

Steal This Urine Test: Fighting Drug Hysteria in America

Abbie Hoffman. Penguin Books, $12.95 (272pp) ISBN 978-0-14-010400-4

Former Yippie Hoffman (Steal this Book, Square Dancing in the Ice Age) examines drug testing in political, social and legal contexts while shattering myths about drug use and abuse. Instead of funding rehabilitation programs, Hoffman contends, the government mainly engages in ""propaganda ploys'' that neither help nor educate. Discussing misconceptions about urine testing and apparent violations of constitutional rights, he provides up-to-date information on the reliability of testing procedures and points out how lab errors are made. He challenges ``bladder cops,'' takes readers on a field trip through a urinanalysis lab and instructs in how to beat the test. While Hoffman holds attention throughout with puns (``mind over bladder''), anecdotes and satirical writing (``golden showers come your way''), it is the extensive, in-depth research and a barrage of facts and figures that make this the definitive guide to the current drug-testing environment. (October)