A local health food company says an herb it makes definitely won't help you pass a drug test, but people are buying goldenseal anyway with that in mind.
"We sell tons of the stuff for that exact reason," said Greg Ashby, buyer for Bright Day Health Foods in Ogden.Goldenseal is the common name for the plant Hydrastis canadensis, which is gathered and the root stalks processed into a powder or capsules. As an herb, it's been around for centuries as a nutritional supplement, said one local producer.
Ashby said people believe it has antibiotic and antiviral properties. "It's to be used to clear the poisons out of your body," he said.
In recent years, however, goldenseal has gained a reputation as a way for cocaine users to pass urine drug tests.
"They come right out and tell you, `Hey, I need to pass a drug test,' and we've never had anybody come back and tell us, `Hey, I flunked my drug test and it's your fault,' " Ashby said.
He said he never tells anyone it will help them pass a drug test. When they ask him question about doses and effects, "I just say, `Read the label,' " he said.
James L. Beck, president of Solaray, is doing his best to kill the rumor.
"Goldenseal is an herb that's been popular for many, many, many years long before anybody conceived of cocaine," he said. "I have no idea how the rumor got started and nobody else seems to know either, but there does seem to be some misconception on the part of drug users that if they take goldenseal it will somehow purify their blood or somehow mask cocaine use."
Beck said he's checked with Edward Walker, a chemist at Weber State College, and has been assured there is nothing to the idea.
Walker, a biochemist, said the equipment used to test for drugs is just too good to be fooled by something like goldenseal.
He said the standard tool is a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer, the same thing used at the Olympics and other athletic events to find minute amounts of drugs.
Older testing procedures could possibly have been tricked by some foods or herbs, he said, "but with the new technology, you can't fool it with goldenseal."