BUSTING STUDENT DRUG TESTS

I see the Drug Czar's Travelin' Urine Test Medicine Show rolled
through Pennsylvania the other day ("Deputy drug czar touts student
drug testing," May 6 and TribLIVE.com).

Deputy drug czar Mary Ann Solberg says every student in the U.S.
should drop his pants on demand as a demonstration that he is really
one of the two in three who abstain from drug use.

Demanding urine samples without cause essentially tells our drug-free
teenagers that their word cannot be trusted. Is this the kind of
relationship that we as parents want to promote among ourselves,
school administrators and our kids?

And how effective can such programs really be in terms of potential
deterrence? As Evan Adams, Seneca Valley's student council vice
president, aptly noted (in his own clumsy supportive quote), students
who use drugs simply quit using for a short period prior to testing.
After the test? It's business as usual. About one in three students
will continue to use illicit drugs, with the majority quitting as they
get older. The other two in three teens will truly be drug-free, but
will nonetheless be treated by their schools as just more potential
druggies.

That is, if those schools choose to buy a bottle of the drug czar's
"silver bullet" patent medicine -- otherwise known as random student
drug testing without cause.

JOSH SUTCLIFFE

Brooklyn, NY