DRUG TESTS SEND MANY BACK TO JAIL

A Surprise Drug Test The Day After The Super Bowl Sent Gloucester Parolees
Back To The Big House.

GLOUCESTER - Surprise drug and alcohol tests the day after the Super Bowl
put more than 20 probationers and parolees back in jail.

Dale Jacobson, chief probation and parole officer for five counties on the
Middle Peninsula, said 88 offenders were summoned to appear Monday at the
district office in Gloucester. They were patted down, sniffed by a
drug-detecting dog and given an hour to produce a urine specimen.

Twenty - or 27 percent of those who were tested - failed drug tests and
were jailed, most because they tested positive for cocaine or marijuana, he
said.

Three were jailed for violating instructions that they not use alcohol.

Two habitual offenders whose driver's licenses had been revoked drove
themselves to the office and were arrested for violating probation by
driving without a license.

Two were arrested on new criminal warrants. Twelve didn't show up. Some had
been arrested by Tuesday and the rest were being sought.

Jacobson said that when the date for the surprise testing was chosen,
organizers didn't know it was the day after the Super Bowl, a popular
occasion for parties.

"When we realized what we had done, we realized it was a good day," he said.