Pubdate: Fri, 31 Jan 2003
Source: Beaver County Times, The (PA)
Copyright: 2003 Beaver County Times/Allegheny Times
Contact:  http://www.timesonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2449
Author: Robert Sharpe

BEWARE OF DRUG TESTING

In regard to Friday's editorial "Could Seneca Valley's size be a factor in 
its drug problem:"

Seneca Valley School District officials need to educate themselves on the 
downside of student drug testing.

Last year, the Supreme Court issued a controversial ruling that paved the 
way for school-drug testing of kids who enroll in extracurricular 
activities. This latest drug war exemption to the Constitution may do more 
harm than good.

Student involvement in after-school activities 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 in extracurricular activities.

Drug testing may also compel users 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 days.

Synthetic drugs are water-soluble and exit the body quickly. A student who 
takes heroin, ecstasy or LSD 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. 
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 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: Beth