EDUCATION PROGRAMS BETTER THAN DRUG TESTS

To The Editor: On drug testing in Transylvania County schools:

Student involvement in after-school activities like sports has been
shown to reduce drug use. They keep kids busy during the hours they're
most likely to get into trouble.

Forcing students to undergo degrading urine tests will only discourage
participation in extracurricular activities.

Drug testing may also compel marijuana users to switch to harder drugs
to avoid detection.

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 fat-soluble organic metabolites can linger for days.

Synthetic drugs are water-soluble and exit the body quickly. A student
who takes methamphetamine, ecstasy or LSD on Friday night will likely
test clean on Monday morning. If you think students don't know this,
think again. Anyone capable of running an Internet search can learn
how to thwart a drug test.

Alcohol -- the drug most commonly abused and most closely associated
with violent behavior -- is almost impossible to detect with urinalysis.

Alcohol takes far more student lives every year than all illegal drugs
combined.

Instead of wasting money on counterproductive drug tests, schools
should invest in reality-based drug education.

Robert Sharpe

Washington, D.C.

Robert Sharpe is a policy analyst for Common Sense for Drug Policy,
headquartered in Washington, D.C. The group's Web site is www.csdp.org