THWARTING WORKPLACE DRUG TESTS

Re: "Drug-test foils never fail to impress," May 17 Al Lewis column.

Despite a short-lived high, marijuana is the only 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 are water-soluble and exit the body quickly. An employee who
uses methamphetamine on Friday night will likely test clean on Monday
morning. If you think drug users don't know this, think again. Anyone
capable of running a search on the Internet can find out how to thwart
a drug test.

Workplace drug tests may compel users of relatively harmless marijuana
to switch to harder drugs to avoid testing positive. Drug-testing
profiteers do not readily volunteer this information, for obvious
reasons. The most commonly abused drug and the one most closely
associated with violence is almost impossible to detect with
urinalysis. That drug is alcohol, and it takes far more lives each
year than all illegal drugs combined. Hangovers don't contribute to
workplace safety, and counterproductive drug tests do absolutely
nothing to discourage the No. 1 drug problem.

ROBERT SHARPE

Arlington, Va.

The writer is a policy analyst for Common Sense for Drug Policy in
Washington, D.C.