DRUG TESTS FOR COPS A DOPEY IDEA

On Nov. 29, 2000, Courtney RCMP Const. Barry Schneider, 43, collapsed on his
kitchen floor. He was discovered by his nine-year-old daughter, who ran to a
neighbour for help. By the time the ambulance arrived, Schneider was dead.

On Dec. 6, 600 police officers, family, and community members attended
Schneider's funeral at an army base in Comox. The mourners were told that he
had died of a heart attack.

Ten days later, a routine post-autopsy toxicology report revealed that
Schneider had died of a lethal overdose of heroin and cocaine.

"Foul play is considered remote," RCMP Corp. Grant Learned stated. "Any one
person, regardless of status or position in the community, may be the victim
of drugs."

For 20 years, Schneider had devoted himself to the fight against drugs,
first as an under-cover cop, and then as the coordinator for the RCMP drug
awareness program on Vancouver Island.

In recent days it was revealed that Schneider had suffered from a complex
stomach ailment, and may have been taking heroin to ease his pain. RCMP
officials have admitted that he could have gained access to heroin through
his job.

In the wake of this tragedy, Sgt. Chuck Doucette, head of the RCMP'S
province-wide drug awareness program, has suggested that RCMP officers
should be subjected to mandatory drug testing.

"We should come out and lead by example," he told the media.

While Doucette's intentions are noble, I see no compelling reason to subject
police officers to mandatory drug testing.

Dr. Ray Baker, a local addictions expert, states that "kids who grow up in
families with alcoholic addictions often go into professions where they are
either helping, fixing or controlling other people." Police work offers a
rare opportunity to do all three. Law enforcement is the perfect vocation to
hide from your own demons. It should be no surprise that police officers are
notorious boozehounds, or that some of them use illegal drugs.

Police officers enforce laws; they don't make them. Although it might
provide deepened job satisfaction, there is no practical need for police
officers to approve of the laws they enforce.

Having lousy hair doesn't disqualify you from being a hairdresser. High-end
fashion designers typically look like dumpster-diving trolls. Being a petty
criminal doesn't make you a bad cop.

Of course it's preferable that armed police officers aren't stumbling around
ripped on heroin, but surely the boozy cop is a much bigger threat. And if
we're going to subject high-risk employees to mandatory drug testing, the
list would have to include bus drivers, airline pilots, school teachers,
nurses, structural engineers, cab drivers, electricians, surgeons and
others.

A police officer can go decades-or a whole career-without pulling her
weapon, but a school-bus driver has the potential to end 45 young lives
every minute of every shift.

Some cops will continue to anesthetize themselves with booze and illegal
drugs. Occasionally, someone like Schneider will make a mistake and die from
it. That is very sad. But like the rest of us, police officers should have
the right to self-destruct in the privacy of their own homes.