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AN INVASION OF PRIVACY

This is in response to the May 1 letter, "Drug tests make sense." Contrary to the writer's assertion, "common sense" is not a compelling reason to infringe on individual liberties without cause.  Furthermore, drug testing without cause ( i.e.  random or pre-employment drug screening ) is a flagrant violation of a person's privacy and, in the case of a government entity conducting such tests, a person's constitutional rights.

The writer attempts to make his case by giving a hypothetical example of a county worker having an accident in a county vehicle while on drugs.

In such a situation, the county might well be on the hook for a large sum of money, as he says.  Is the writer trying to say that drug testing of county employees will save the county money? If it came down to a choice between saving the county money or preserving constitutionally guaranteed individual freedom, I will keep my freedom.

The writer reiterates a common platitude among the proponents of drug testing, saying that if you don't use drugs, you have nothing to fear.  Those who think that way couldn't be more wrong.  Everyone should be very fearful of the dangerous precedent set by drug testing, as it reduces a person's reasonable expectation of privacy, and brings America closer to being a police state.

To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, "Those who would give up an essential liberty in exchange for security deserve neither, and will probably lose both."

MICHAEL H.  KATZ, Port Orange