Dear Summit Free Press:

Regarding the story "Vail Resorts drops drug testing" (Free Press,
July). There is no evidence whatsoever that drug testing benefits
businesses or the public in any way.

Studies by the National Science Foundation and the American Medical
Association show that drug testing has been ineffective in reducing
drug use and has no noticeable impact on reducing either absenteeism
or improving productivity.

The National Academy of Sciences found that illegal drugs contribute
little to workplace accidents and that off-duty drug use has about the
same small effect on worker accidents as off-duty drinking.

The reason drugs cause very little trouble in the workplace is
simple.

Drug users rarely use drugs on the job. People use drugs away from
work in ways that do not affect job safety or performance.

Drug testing reduces a company's productivity according to Eric Shepard,
co-author of the Le Moyne study of drug testing in Silicon Valley: "We
found that productivity was 16 percent lower in companies with
pre-employment testing than those that didn't test, and it was 29 percent
(lower) in companies with both pre-employment and random testing."

Drug testing was promoted by drug crusaders like Robert L. Dupont
(former drug czar), Carlton Turner (former drug czar) and Peter
Bensinger (former head of NIDA). After persuading Congress and the
public that drug tests were the solution to our drug problems these
profiteers joined together in forming Bensinger, Dupont & Associates,
the world's largest drug testing company to cash in on the
drug-testing laws they wrote.

Bensinger, Dupont & Associates contracted as advisors to 250 of the
nation's largest corporations to corner the drug testing market and
reap a fortune for their useless drug tests.

Drug testing companies are the only beneficiaries of workplace drug
testing.

Breckenridge Ski Resort made a smart business decision to stop wasting
$150,000 per year on drug testing.

Redford Givens,
San Francisco