NEW RANDOM DRUG-TESTING POLICY IN CICERO UNDER FIRE FROM ACLU

Cicero's new policy that subjects all public employees to random drug
testing is raising concerns about whether the policy is legal, or even
reliable.

"We believe across-the-board drug testing for public employees is
unconstitutional." said American Civil Liberties Union spokesman Ed
Yohnka. "We think a clerk or an administrative person does not
demonstrate a reasonable relationship to public safety and that
subjecting these people to drug testing is unwarranted and
unnecessary."

Under the new policy, an employee who tests positive for drug use will
be put on probation and required to seek professional help. An
employee who tests positive a second time will face due process that
could result in termination.

Yohnka said testing those who do not perform public-safety related
tasks is an invasion of privacy. He also said the policy, which takes
effect this week, relies on the use of unreliable hair-sample tests.

"Hair tests are inefficient," Yohnka said. "They can be influenced by
environmental factors. ... Additionally, there is research that
demonstrates such tests may have a racial bias."

Though drug testing using hair samples has been done for decades, its
accuracy has been in dispute. The National Institute on Drug Abuse and
the Food and Drug Administration have characterized such tests as unreliable.

And some experts say testing hair samples is racially biased because
false positive results occur more often when sampling coarse hair from
blacks, Latinos or Asians than from light or fine hair.

Dr. Peter Orris, the director of the Occupational Health Services
Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago's School of Public
Health, agreed that hair testing can be flawed. He said urine tests
are more reliable.

"Hair analysis does not tell you how long ago the person may have used
a drug," Orris said. "This type of testing is variable and can often
depend on how quickly a person's hair grows. The other reason there
are flaws with this type of testing is because hair analysis is not
quantitative. It might be that a person was sitting in a room with
people who were smoking marijuana and that can put it in the hair."

But Cicero Town Atty. Barry Pechter said physicians he and other town
officials contacted favor the hair tests over urine tests.

"All of our research indicates that hair testing is far more
sophisticated and far less likely to be altered" than urine tests, he
said. "They sell all kinds of stuff to alter urine. Doctors tell me
hair-follicle testing is the way to go, and that it's virtually 100
percent."

Pechter also defended the town's decision to subject all municipal
employees to the random tests.

"A lot of this [reason for the policy] stemmed from people who drive
vehicles," Pechter said. "The janitor might run out to Home Depot and
buy supplies, the secretary might drive out to pick up supplies, even
in the legal department we sometimes drive a town car to court. The
cashier is responsible for the citizens' money. Do you want someone
who is addicted to cocaine handling the taxpayers' money?"

Prior to the policy, Cicero conducted voluntary testing of its
employees. Pechter said the new mandate was created so employees
understand there will be ramifications if they test positive for drugs
or alcohol, and so that no employee can claim he or she was unaware
the policy existed.

Employees are being informed of the new policy when they pick up their
paychecks this week.