Western Colo. pot smoker accused of offering bribe to try to pass urine drug test

Pot smoker accused of trying to bribe urine tester

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — A pot-smoking parolee in Colorado faces criminal charges for allegedly offering a cash bribe to try to pass a drug test. Police said a 34-year-old man tried Jan. 3 to bribe a state worker to allow him to use a device called a “Whizzinator” to pass a drug test he had to take while on parole. The man allegedly said he had a medical marijuana card, though officials couldn’t confirm whether that was true.

Colorado’s medical marijuana law allows convicted criminals to get cards, but those on parole still must pass drug tests. State lawmakers are currently weighing new marijuana rules that would prevent people on parole from having the cards.

Prosecutors said the man offered a state worker $300 after the worker found him with the “Whizzinator,” a device of tubing and heater packs attached to a prosthetic penis sold to cheat drug tests.

An arrest warrant affidavit reported by The (Grand Junction) Daily Sentinel Thursday said a caseworker became suspicious about his urine sample after he tried to block the worker’s view while he was providing his sample.

When asked to raise his shirt and lower his pants, the man was seen wearing the “Whizzinator.” The man allegedly offered the state worker $300, then $500, to throw away the device. The worker refused.

The caseworker took the device, and the man left.

That same day, the man called state parole officials and said he had panicked after smoking marijuana on New Year’s Day, the anniversary of his father’s death, saying he was “having a very hard time dealing with it.”

The man now faces felony bribery charges and is being held in the Mesa County Jail. He was on parole for a 2007 menacing conviction.

Information from: The Daily Sentinel, www.gjsentinel.com