A former commercial airline pilot was sentenced to nine months in prison this morning for selling a product online designed to mask drugs in a person's urine to beat drug tests.

Stephen Sharp, of Port Orange, Fla., operated the website, yourintheclear.com and sold a powder to be mixed in cranberry juice one to five hours before a scheduled drug test. The website promised a 100 percent pass rate to beat tests for both marijuana and cocaine.

During the hearing before U.S. District Judge David S. Cercone, Mr. Sharp's attorney argued that his client had already suffered a great deal since federal agents raided Sharp Labs Inc. on May 7, 2008.

Mr. Sharp lost his job working for a subsidiary of US Airlines and will not be allowed to work as a pilot in the future.

The attorney asked for his client, who faced a recommended guideline range of six to 12 months in prison, to be sentenced to either straight probation or home detention.

But Judge Cercone, in strong words, denied the request, asking Mr. Sharp what he would have done had another pilot used his product to cover up his drug use and then crashed a plane with 250 people aboard.

"Did you ever contemplate that? Did you ever think about what your conduct could lead to? Did you even care?"

Mr. Sharp, who tried repeatedly to apologize, couldn't answer.

"This conduct is really despicable," the judge said. "The magnitude of the potential harm to others is vast.".

Mr. Sharp, who pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, will be permitted to self-report to prison.

Washington correspondent Daniel Malloy writes the "Pittsburgh On The Potomac" blog exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.