ASSAULT ON RIGHTS SHOULD BE FLUSHED

From both sides: Should employers test for use of illegal drugs?

Soon, we'll all be peeing in a bottle to prove our worthiness to work,
play, raise families: Grandma, before she's allowed to visit her
grandchildren. Mom and Dad, before they're allowed to play recreational
softball. Junior, before he's allowed to ride on the rooter's bus.

Who knows? Maybe editorial writers someday will have to prove they're drug
free before they're permitted to opine -- not that clear thinking is
required to do this job.

We're not only headed down a slippery slope here; we're near the bottom.
Unable to win the drug war through education and enforcement, we've allowed
well-meaning people and insurance companies to foist drug testing on one
target group after another. Now, through anti-drug programs at school and
in the workplace, they're coming after the rest of us.

Coeur d'Alene's Enough Is Enough anti-drug program is the latest wholesale
assault on the Fourth Amendment.

For those who have forgotten, the Fourth Amendment gives U.S. citizens the
right ``to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against
unreasonable searches and seizures." Whether recognized by an activist
judicial system or not, random drug tests are an unreasonable search.
Basically, the tests say to workers: You're guilty till proven innocent.

The Supreme Court pushed us over the edge a decade ago by ruling that the
Fourth Amendment must bow to public safety. The court said train engineers
and gun-carrying federal agents could be required to submit to drug
testing. Later, the ruling was expanded to include pilots, firefighters and
police. Most of us were comfortable with the decisions because no one
wanted to fly in a jet piloted by someone strung out on methamphetamine, or
worse.

But what danger does an office secretary pose to herself or others if she's
high or hung over? If her performance is substandard, she should be warned.
Or fired. Not sent to pee at a laboratory approved by a health maintenance
organization.

In Coeur d'Alene, school children gladly pee in bottles to join Idaho Drug
Free Youth. Mayor Steve Judy and four of six City Council members willingly
pee in bottles as an example for staff. Kootenai County workers can be
ordered to pee in a bottle. Coeur d'Alene -- and society -- is becoming
acclimated to drug testing.

Literally, we're peeing away a precious right.