Pubdate: Sat, 20 Jul 2002 Source: Chicago Tribune (IL) Copyright: 2002 Chicago Tribune Company Contact: http://www.chicagotribune.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82 Author: Anne Marie McCormack and Anne F. Gauthier MORONIC POLICIES Anne Marie McCormack Brookfield -- Letter writers James Gierach's "Parents who oppose drug test have few options" and Brian Bennett's "Drug testing" (Voice of the people, July 10) illustrate two of the (myriad) reasons I am so glad I don't have children: I'd have to expose them to and, perhaps more difficult, try to explain the moronic policies of the adults in charge. Supreme Court decision aside, random drug testing is a violation of student rights. The irony of the ruling allowing testing of those involved in extracurricular activities, of course, is that high school drug abusers tend not to participate. Those teens who are both experimenting with illicit materials and considering joining marching band or the school newspaper now will opt not to join anything in order to avoid the risk of drug tests. Thus, instead of spending their after-school hours under the guidance of an adult and in the company of the fellow students least likely to be drug users, they will choose to continue to hang out with their also-uninvolved friends. Baby Boomers are probably the Americans who used drugs more than any other generation of teenagers. I find it amazing that now that they are running the schools, they are so intolerant of what they did so enthusiastically themselves. Today's teens have more reason not to trust anyone over 30 than did the youth originally so vocal in that belief. - -------------------------------------------------- Drug Treatment Anne F. Gauthier Evanston -- About drug testing in the schools, I think it will be doing our youth a favor. I work in a treatment center for alcoholism and other drug dependency--Hazelden Chicago. Most of our patients are in mid-life, but when a person in the late teens or early 20s comes into treatment, the older patients invariably say, "I wish I had gotten help when I was your age so I could have started a better life sooner." Drug testing can help identify the approximately 10 percent of youth who are biologically vulnerable to drug dependency and encourage them to get treatment. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth