SCHOOL DRUG TESTS A MOVE TOWARD POLICE STATE

Maricopa County Attorney Richard Romley, and the Phoenix Mayor Phil
Gordon's recently co-authored letter to the Tribune was a case in point of
white-male politicians using the war on drugs to advance their political
careers.

Instead of addressing how deadly, addictive drugs are getting into the
hands of our children, they suggest what they hope to be a politically
popular idea with parents: drug testing.

For every additional failure in the war on drugs, politicians' only
solution is to increase the police state that this country has become and
take yet more control of our lives.

It's because of drug prohibition that drugs have become cheaper and more
addictive. And children are selling drugs to children because of mandatory
minimum sentencing laws. All the drugs test in the world will not change
those facts, or help a child already addicted to black tar heroin.

When is the last time you heard of drug dealers pushing beer or cigarettes
at your child's school? You don't because there is no profit in it. The
difference? The state controls alcohol and tobacco; drugs are controlled by
a growing black market that targets our children.

If parents want to drug-test their children that's one thing, but for
schools to start drug testing is another thing entirely.

Paula A. Pennypacker

Scottsdale