The Clean Germ

Recent charges brought against drummer Don Bolles of The Germs for carrying what police determined was drug-spiked liquid soap didn’t hold water.

Bolles (real name: Jimmy Michael Giorsetti) was pulled over on a traffic stop in Newport Beach April 4th and subsequently searched. Police found a small amount of marijuana in the vehicle, which Bolles is apparently allowed to possess for medical reasons.

But the real trouble started when police came across a bottle of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps of Escondido. They conducted a field test on the soap, which tested positive for GHB, commonly known as the date rape drug.

Bolles was arrested and charged with felony drug possession. There was one problem: The soap was clean.

When confirmation tests on the magic soap were conducted in the Orange County crime lab, police found that it didn’t contain GHB after all.

Representatives from Dr. Bronner’s, who took up Bolles’ case after hearing about the test results, purchased the same field tests used by police and conducted their own tests on the liquid, according to a statement. The results proved shocking.

"We confirmed that the test is useless when used on soap since every test came back positive. We also tested other common brands of soap including Johnson & Johnson’s popular Neutrogena brand, as well as Colgate-Palmolive’s Tom’s of Maine brand, which gave the same false positive tests as well," the statement said.

Newport Beach police Sgt. Evan Sailor told the San Diego Union Tribune previous field tests always proved reliable.

"We’ve never had a false positive," Sailor said. "This is the first one."

Orange County DA spokeswoman Farrah Emami told the paper the charges have been dropped.

"Based on the results of the crime lab test, we have dismissed the case," Emami said.

The Germs broke up in 1980 after iconic frontman Darby Crash died from a drug overdose. The band reunited two years ago.