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