Pubdate: Wed, 10 Apr 2002
Source: Ventura County Star (CA)
Copyright: 2002, The E.W. Scripps Co.
Contact:  http://www.staronline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/479
Pubdate: Wed, 10 Apr 2002
Source: Ventura County Star (CA)
Copyright: 2002, The E.W. Scripps Co.
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n656/a09.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)

TESTS COUNTERPRODUCTIVE

Re: your April 3 editorial, "Taking high school drug tests too far": Your 
editorial was right on target. The U.S. Supreme Court will review an 
Oklahoma school district's drug testing policy on constitutional grounds, 
but there are compelling health reasons to oppose the invasive policy. 
Student involvement in extracurricular activities has been shown to reduce 
drug use. Forcing students to undergo degrading drug tests as a 
prerequisite will only discourage such activities. Drug testing may also 
compel smokers of relatively harmless marijuana to switch to harder drugs 
to avoid testing positive. Despite a short-lived high, marijuana is the 
only drug that stays in the human body long enough to make urinalysis a 
deterrent.

Marijuana's organic metabolites are fat-soluble and can linger for weeks. 
Synthetic drugs are water-soluble and exit the body quickly. A student who 
takes Ecstasy, cocaine, heroin or meth on Friday night will likely test 
clean on Monday morning. If you think students don't know this, think 
again. Anyone capable of running a search on the Internet can find out how 
to thwart a drug test. The most commonly abused drug is almost impossible 
to detect with urinalysis. That drug is alcohol, and it takes far more 
lives every year than all illegal drugs combined.

Instead of wasting money on counterproductive drug tests, schools should 
invest in reality-based drug education.

- -- Robert Sharpe, Program officer, Drug Policy Alliance, Washington, D.C.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom