DRUG TESTING A WASTE

The volunteer drug tests proposed for Navarro School District are a
colossal waste of tax dollars ("School wants to drug test," April 28).
Would students who use drugs volunteer for a drug test?

Even so, the symbolic voluntary tests are preferable to mandatory testing.
Urinalysis is counterproductive when it comes to keeping students off
drugs. Only one drug stays in the body long enough to make urinalysis a
deterrent - marijuana.

The growing use of heroin is in part a result of drug testing. A student
who takes a potentially deadly drug like heroin Friday will test clean Monday.

The most commonly abused drug and the one most often associated with
violence is almost impossible to detect with urinalysis. That drug is
alcohol, and it takes far more student lives than all other drugs combined.

Robert Sharpe, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, George Washington
University Washington, D.C.