DRUG-TESTING FIRM PUTS CONNICK ON PAYROLL

Advocacy Turns into Job for Former DA

For years before his retirement as Orleans Parish district attorney,
Harry Connick beat the drum for a Massachusetts company that uses hair
samples to test people for drug use. He spoke out publicly in favor of
testing students' hair and on occasion escorted its officers to
meetings with officials and opinion-shapers in the media.

Civil rights concerns and other issues led Orleans Parish public
school officials to reject the testing regimen Connick advocated, but
his efforts on behalf of Psychemedics, as the company is known, were
not unavailing.

In December, Connick was made a Psychemedics board member at an annual
stipend of $20,000. Last month the pot was sweetened further when
Psychemedics gave Connick stock options for 5,150 shares at $11.67
each, available until 2014. The stock closed Thursday at $12.30 on the
American stock exchange.

"We sought him out," said Raymond Kubacki, president and CEO of
Psychemedics, which reported $16 million in revenues for 2003 by
catering to some 2,600 mostly corporate clients, including General
Motors and Toyota. "He does the right things for the right reasons,
not because they're popular. We're honored to have him."

Move criticized

Connick, 78, who retired in January 2003 after 29 years as district
attorney, said he was well out of office when he joined the board.
Critics, however, have pounced on the board appointment with
Psychemedics as evidence that Connick was caught in a conflict of
interest during the years that he lent his authority as district
attorney to the company's efforts to expand into the New Orleans area
market.

"I always kept asking the question: Why is he pushing this company?"
said Joe Cook of the American Civil Liberties Union's Louisiana
chapter, which opposes drug testing in schools and calls the hair
sample method both unreliable and racist.

Darker, coarser hair is said to be more sensitive to testing, possibly
producing false positives.

"The only one benefiting is the company doing the tests," Cook said of
the drug-testing programs. "Now, he is benefiting from it."

Connick's successor, District Attorney Eddie Jordan, declined to
comment for this article, though in the past he has publicly
questioned why Connick was so zealous on Psychemedics' behalf, asking
at one point why the drug-testing program offered to Orleans public
schools wasn't put out to bid.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that schools may subject students who
participate in extracurricular activities to random drug tests, but
states differ on laws concerning reasonable searches.

In southern Louisiana, the idea of random drug tests at schools is a
divisive issue. Civil libertarians loathe it, parents are often
suspicious of the tests' accuracy, while politicians such as Connick
have hawked the programs to demonstrate that they are tough on drugs.

Studies on the effectiveness of drug testing in preventing student
drug use yield inconsistent results.

N.O. scrapped program

Several private New Orleans schools, such as De La Salle High School,
have been testing students for drugs for several years. De La Salle
was one of the first schools that Connick helped acquire grant money
for drug testing by Psychemedics.

But Orleans Parish school officials scrapped a program that started in
two schools in 2002 after many parents expressed a distrust of the
tests' accuracy. Jefferson Parish stepped up to take the grant money
Connick had put together for drug testing. The Jefferson program is
managed by Connick's nephew, Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul
Connick.

Paul Connick said the testing is confidential and can identify
troubled teens before they land in the criminal justice system.

"It's about helping children. the whole goal is to identify someone
experimenting with drugs at an early age," he said. "I don't want to
see these kids in court."

He dismissed criticism of his uncle's Psychemedics
role.

"Harry's done great work that's been recognized nationally," the
Jefferson prosecutor said. "It's not even worth responding to."

Harry Connick is getting a relatively nominal fee for serving on the
Psychemedics board, company executives said. The $20,000 a year is
about one-third what the average corporate board member earns.

"It helps because my retirement is half of what I was making as
district attorney," said Connick, who earned $100,000 as district
attorney. "I'm not getting wealthy. I've retired. I wanted to do my
own thing, work around the house."

But Connick says it wasn't money that drew him to the job. Rather it
was his belief that school drug testing saves lives.

Focus on the workplace

Though Psychemedics has sold its drug-testing service to 175 schools
in 26 states, students are a relatively small part of the company's
market.

"Our focus in our company is workplace testing," Kubacki added.
"That's what we really do. We do schools because we think we can do
good while doing well."

The company called Connick a "national leader in the war on drugs,"
and noted his recent honor from the Bush administration's drug czar,
John Walters. Psychemedics publicly announced Connick's addition to
its board Dec. 1, but locally the former district attorney -- never
known to by shy with the media -- kept the news to himself.

In a letter to The Times-Picayune published Feb. 5, Connick did not
mention his new financial interest in the company as he took a swat at
Orleans Parish schools for rejecting drug-testing programs available
through federal grants he had secured.

If Orleans changes its mind and wants to begin drug testing, "I'll get
the money for them -- again," Connick wrote.

Connick praises Jefferson

Responding to criticism from Jordan, to date not an enthusiast of
schoolhouse drug testing, Connick said he couldn't have solicited bids
on the service because Psychemedics is the only company that does
hair-testing in exactly that way. Moreover, the drug tests were being
offered to the school free -- paid for by the federal grants.

Connick lauded Jefferson Parish for taking advantage of the $1 million
in federal grant money for drug testing that Orleans schools turned
down.

"While they're doing something about the teenage drug problem, the
children in Orleans Parish are shooting each other," Harry Connick
said. "Orleans Parish is ignoring it, and the kids continue to engage
in violent conduct and truancy and bad grades."

The program randomly tests athletes and students who take part in
band, cheerleading and other activities, seeking out traces of
marijuana, cocaine, PCP, Ecstasy and methamphetamines.

Students who fail the tests are not criminally prosecuted, Jefferson
Parish officials said, but instead are placed in counseling programs.
The drug tests do not look for alcohol or steroids.

Company has defenders

Psychemedics has its supporters, as well as a Web site that touts
studies that show hair testing to be highly effective, particularly
because it provides a 90-day history of drugs ingested. The more
commonly used urine tests reveal drug use only within several days.
This week, the White House proposed adding three new types of tests
for drug testing federal employees: saliva, sweat and hair.

Hair tests, however, are more expensive than urine screens. And
critics, such as the Drug Policy Alliance, point out the higher
sensitivity on tests of darker, coarser hair.

With so many of the country's public schools in financial crisis, the
money that goes for drug testing could be better spent, said Viany
Orozco, a research assistant for the Drug Policy Alliance in Oakland,
Calif.

"We prefer that money be spent on treatment, or put into hiring a drug
counselor or increasing the availability of after-school activities,"
Orozco said. "Drug testing does not give you any insight into the real
cause why a teenager is using drugs. What they may need is
counseling."