KIDS BEAT DRUG TESTS

The Bartonville Police Department's "tough love" drug testing kits may do
more harm than good.

Despite a short-lived high, marijuana is the only illegal drug that stays
in the human body long enough to make urinalysis a deterrent. Marijuana's
organic metabolites are fat soluble and can linger for days. Synthetic
drugs like methamphetamine are water soluble and exit the body quickly.

If you think teenagers don't know this, think again. Anyone capable of
running an Internet search can find out how to thwart a drug test.
Drug-testing profiteers do not readily volunteer this information, for
obvious reasons.

The most commonly abused drug and the one most closely associated with
violent behavior is almost impossible to detect with urinalysis. That drug
is alcohol, and it takes far more student lives every year than all illegal
drugs combined. Instead of wasting money on counterproductive urine tests,
Bartonville schools should invest in reality-based drug education.

Robert Sharpe

Policy Analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.