AFTER-SCHOOL ACTIVITIES BETTER THAN DRUG TESTING

Regarding your May 20 editorial "Testing teens for drugs," student
involvement in after-school activities like sports has been shown to
reduce drug use. They keep kids busy during the hours they are most
likely to get into trouble. Forcing students to undergo degrading
urine tests as a prerequisite will only discourage participation. Drug
testing may also compel marijuana users to switch to harder drugs to
avoid testing positive.

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. More dangerous synthetic drugs like OxyContin are water-soluble
and exit the body quickly. If you think drug users 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 each year than all illegal drugs combined.

ROBERT SHARPE, MPA, Policy Analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy,
Washington, DC