It's the water that flushes the drugs out. Everything that's sold . . . Dr. Peter Rogers, a pediatrician at Children's Hospital, said that's the reason urine drug tests aren't completely reliable. Many drugs, such as alcohol and barbiturates, are easily flushed from the body with a few glasses of water. If you drink on Friday, and you go out after a game and have 10 beers, by Monday it's not going to be there,'' he said.
Some districts try to get around that with weekend testing.
For example, Pickerington calls athletes on Saturday night and tells them to go to Fairfield Medical Center on Sunday. Rogers noted that the tests don't look for some drugs. Smith added GHB, also known as liquid Ecstasy and the date-rape drug, to the list. So kids won't smoke marijuana during the football season. Franz said he doesn't agree.