TEST TO PREVENT TRAGEDY

My 24-year-old daughter is a heroin addict. I found out late one
night in 2003 when I received a call that my daughter, who was a
student at Virginia Commonwealth University, was in the emergency
room at MCV Hospital with Hepatitis-C. She got the disease from using
a shared spoon that was used to prepare the heroin for injection into
her vein. She could have also been infected with HIV, but thankfully
she has avoided that disease so far.

Over the next two years I learned that she had begun using drugs
(marijuana) at age 14, and progressed to heroin by 18. In the ensuing
years, she tried every illegal drug available. Heroin was her drug of choice.

My husband and I did not have a clue that she was using drugs until
the emergency room visit. She has been through drug rehab countless
times and still struggles with it today. She will struggle with it
for the rest of her life. Also for the remainder of her life she will
try to fight the potentially fatal Hepatitis-C, for which there is no cure.

Five years ago I was against drug testing in the workplace and in
schools. I considered it an invasion of privacy. No more. Knowing
what I know now, I would test all kids at least once during each
school year with ongoing random testing throughout the year. I would
also test on suspicion.

My daughter says that most kids in school use at least one type of
drug on a continuing basis. Parents, there is nothing more important
than your children. Urge your school to implement drug testing. It
may save you a lot of heartache in the future.

Name withheld to protect the daughter's identity