Pubdate: Wed, 21 Feb 2007
Source: Dispatch, The (IL)
Copyright: 2007 Moline Dispatch Publishing Company, L.L.C.
Contact:  http://www.qconline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1306
Author: Robert Sharpe
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

COURT WRONG ON DRUG TESTING

Regarding John Donald O'Shea's Feb. 11 op-ed, the U.S. Supreme Court 
made a terrible mistake when it created an exemption to the 
Constitutional and ruled in favor of allowing drug tests for students 
in extracurricular activities.

Student involvement in after-school activities like sports has been 
shown to reduce drug use. They keep kids busy during the hours they 
are most likely to get into trouble. Forcing students to undergo 
degrading urine tests as a prerequisite will only discourage participation.

Drug testing may also compel marijuana users to switch to harder 
drugs to avoid testing positive. Despite a short-lived high, 
marijuana is the only illegal 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 days. More dangerous 
synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and prescription pharmaceuticals 
are water-soluble and exit the body quickly.

If you think drug users don't know this, think again. Anyone capable 
of running an Internet search can find out how to thwart a drug test. 
Drug testing profiteers do not readily volunteer this information, 
for obvious reasons. The most commonly abused drug and the one most 
closely associated with violent behavior is almost impossible to 
detect with urinalysis.

That drug is alcohol, and it takes far more student lives each year 
than all illegal drugs combined. Instead of wasting money on 
counterproductive drug tests, schools should invest in reality-based 
drug education.

Robert Sharpe is a policy analyst with Common Sense for Drug Policy 
in Washington, D.C.; www.csdp.org
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman