DRUG TESTING WRONG ON SEVERAL LEVELS

Regarding John Sleeper's July 16 column, "Wage war on teenage drug abuse":

Student involvement in after-school activities like sports has been
shown to reduce drug use. Sports 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 programs.

Drug testing may also compel marijuana users to switch to harder
drugs to avoid testing positive. This is one of the reasons the
American Academy of Pediatrics opposes student drug testing. Despite
a short-lived high, marijuana is the only illegal 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. More dangerous synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and
prescription narcotics are water-soluble and exit the body quickly.
If you think students don't know this, think again. Anyone capable of
running an Internet search can find out how to thwart a drug test.

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 each year
than all illegal drugs combined. Instead of wasting money on
counterproductive drug tests, schools should invest in reality-based
drug education.

Robert Sharpe, MPA Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C.