Pubdate: Sun, 05 Nov 2006 Source: Orange County Register, The (CA) Copyright: 2006 The Orange County Register Contact: http://www.ocregister.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/321 Author: Jean H. Poole Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing) DETERRENCE IS THE POINT OF DRUG TESTING I have owned a company for 15 years that manages corporate drug-free workplaces. Drug-testing is the cornerstone of such programs. In addition, I offer a community-service, teenage-drug testing program in which well over 1,000 parents and kids have participated. We only charge our cost for a teenage test because of the value teenage drug-testing provides in the effort to curb drug abuse. Although I have never approached schools or school administrators with my thoughts on deterring teenage use ["A choice to test," Front Page, Oct. 28], I have much experience in this arena and offer the following thoughts and opinions. * It is no more an invasion of privacy to test for drugs than it is for the police to use radar to measure your highway speed or a 7-11 to use a camera to film your behavior in the store. It is well known that the fear of being caught is the most effective deterrent available. * The objective of a drug test is not to catch someone using drugs but to deter him or her from using. It is true that regular drug-testing gives kids a reason to think twice and an excuse to say, "No." * If a teenage drug-testing program is not properly managed it can do more harm than good because a negative test does not mean a kid is not using drugs; a laboratory analyzed and medically reviewed positive test is conclusive. Too often a parent assumes that a kid is not using drugs based on a negative test that is not properly performed. Immediate result drug-test kits do not test at very low levels and/or often not for the wide variety of drugs that kids use. Only a test that is sent to a laboratory can test for many different drugs and test at the lowest levels. Also, testing often is not performed often enough to be a deterrent. Many drugs are only present for a few hours in the human system. I have been told by many teenage users that their school testing is not a concern to them because their chances of being caught are slim. It is also essential that parents participate by enforcing reasonable suspicion/for cause testing. This means that they keep a collection kit at home mostly, again, as a deterrent, but they must be willing to use it if necessary, for example, when a kid comes home past curfew, has been in the company of suspicious friends or changes his/her normal behavior. Never before in history has there existed the kind of pressure exerted on our susceptible kids to use drugs. I do not believe that our immature children have the fortitude to mount the necessary resistance. We adults must help them by employing the only method proven (by years of corporate testing) known to deter use -- testing, combined with continuing education. Jean H. Poole Chairman/CEO OHS Health & Safety Services, Inc. Costa Mesa - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman