Pubdate: Wed, 25 Jun 2003
Source: Times of South Mississippi, The (MS)
Copyright: The Times of South Mississippi 2003
Contact:  http://www.thetimeswire.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1950
Author: James Bussard

DRUG TESTING AND EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

To the Editor

The question of drug testing for those engaged in extracurricular 
activities is very interesting. I am against drug testing of any type. It 
is an invasion of privacy in the first degree. It is a form of guilty until 
proven innocent, and it is necessary to submit "fluids" to prove your 
innocence.

The drug war has become a war on American citizens. America is the land of 
the free yet we have more people in jail than any other country on Earth 
(per capata). Many people go home and have a beer after work, they are not 
alcoholics. Likewise many people rely of prozac to make it through the day, 
these people are not drug addicts.

I advocate the end of the drug war. I advocate the end of hypocrisy. 
Strange prohibition - it is legal to smoke tobacco, but smoking of another 
type of leaf gets you thrown off of the chess team, and perhaps thrown in 
jail? Seems to me that since tobacco is the number one cause of preventable 
death in America we should prohibit its use with the same zeal that we 
condemn marijuana. Did we put Betty Ford in jail for her substance 
problems? Should she have been thrown off of the First Lady position 
because she could not pass urinanalysis?

The drug war has generated a full deck of corrupt officials. Look at the 
Rampart issue of California, the dishonest police officer in Texas whose 
false testimony put many black citizens in jail unjustly. Newspapers are 
filled with stories about police corruption, no knock warrants issued on 
the wrong premise et al. The war on drugs has made America very much like 
per war Germany - the DEA is the Gestapo, Drug Czar is Joseph Goebbels (in 
charge of propaganda) and there is no dialog.

People who use any substance in moderation should not be punished. Schools 
should spend money on education, not on enforcing hypocritical laws.

JamesBussard Fort White, Florida
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom