WE ARE HUMANS, NOT LAB RATS

Last month's column about being against drug testing welfare
recipients (Dec. 16) turned out to be somewhat controversial.

Many statements were made about welfare recipients not being "beneath
us," and certainly they are not.

What is disturbing, though, is that out of 91 blogs and one letter to
the editor, no one even mentioned the self-serving politics of Florida
Gov. Rick Scott and his ties to Solantic.

If our elected leaders are passing laws that benefit industries they
or their cronies have money invested in while circumventing our
Constitution, then America, we have a problem.

It might be eye-opening to investigate where our elected leaders have
invested their money and how it relates to their votes.

There must be a reason many of them come out of office richer than
when they went in.

Have we as a society become so naA/ve and submissive as to never
question authority, especially when self-serving interests are so
blatantly apparent? Or is it just easier to pick on the poor?

No one blogged about the statement by U.S. District Judge Mary
Scriven, who blocked the drug testing law on constitutional grounds
but also warned, "Urinalysis can reveal a host of private medical
facts about that individual."

Years ago I wrote about ChoicePoint, a data-mining company that also
facilitated drug-testing programs. The fact is, folks, your urine
sample in the wrong hands is a real cup of gold.

You can believe in the credibility of any business, but the first link
in that chain of custody is in your pants and it's already been broken.

Now ask yourself if you have anything to hide.

Let's move from the lab into the streets.

I've never met a recreational meth user, either. That drug is the
devil. It's damaged too many families and destroyed minds, bodies and
souls. As destructive as that drug is, many have seen that light
through the darkness and God bless them for following it.

The reality is, harder drugs like meth and cocaine are out of your
system within a few days, making it difficult to catch in a drug test,
whereas the THC from marijuana can stay in your system for several
weeks or even months.

That fact puts millions of recreational and medical marijuana users at
risk of losing their jobs, even though they may not be under the influence.

Granted, these drugs are illegal, and many take that hard line.
However, any reasonable person understands the stark differences
between harsh mind-altering chemicals and a natural herb that may
cause mild euphoria with proven medicinal benefits.

This leads to another disheartening fact. Sometimes our children as
well as many adults engage in even more dangerous behaviors trying to
beat a callous drug test.

There have been cases of people drinking bleach to clean out their
system.

The use of prescription drugs, K2, Spice and other products sold as
incense have spiked in recent years with deadly consequences.

People with addictive behaviors may "hit their bottom" some day but it
may be counterintuitive to push them.

For the record, it's never been about drugs for me.

I've been against the idea of urinating in a cup and handing it to a
total stranger since the early '80s. As a young man, I applied for a
job and was sent to North Iowa Medical for a drug test, not quite sure
knowing what it was.

After being told what was expected of me, I started to feel that not
only was it overly intrusive, the very idea of this process felt
degrading and dehumanizing. So much so that I got up and left with my
pride intact -- a pride I have since been forced to swallow.

The truth is, if we accept the subtle erosion of our civil liberties,
the next generation will be much easier to brainwash.

The Supreme Court erred in deciding this practice was constitutional
and hopefully some day it will be corrected.

We are human beings after all, not laboratory rats.

Carl Grover is from Mason City. "My Turn" is the work of community
columnists and appears on this page Fridays