Pubdate: Tue, 24 Apr 2001
Source: Charleston Daily Mail (WV)
Copyright: 2001 Charleston Daily Mail
Contact:  http://www.dailymail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/76
Author: Mike Plylar
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n684/a09.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)

DRUG TESTS MAY BE PROFITABLE, BUT THEY ARE FALLIBLE

I respond to the article, "Huntington already runs random drug testing," in 
the April 18 Daily Mail. Many Americans face the possible disastrous 
consequences of this "voodoo science" called drug testing every day. No 
medical test known to man is 100 percent accurate. Why would drug testing 
be any different?

We base employment decisions, people's futures and careers, and educational 
opportunities on a test common sense tells us cannot be totally reliable.

Whether it is legal substances and food products that cause false 
positives, the burgeoning number of lab errors, or the concocted accident, 
safety and productivity "studies" that are the basis for it all, the 
nation's news media fail to report the facts.

Why? The same reason we have drug testing in the first place. Money.

Incorporate drug testing into every facet of Americans' daily lives and 
drug testers stand to reap billions. Since the drug war will never end, 
neither will drug testing's future.

To hell with the harm drug testing wreaks on the innocent -- or if it even 
works. We're talking real cash here and the power of business and 
government to mandate it -- the perfect crime. Our constitutional rights be 
damned.

When all the problems are exposed concerning the drug testing industry, the 
liabilities may dwarf the tobacco industry's debacle.

Mike Plylar Kremmling, Colo.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager