COLUMBIA ACADEMY PRESIDENT DR. BILL THRASHER MIGHT WANT TO EDUCATE HIMSELF
ON THE DOWNSIDE OF STUDENT DRUG TESTING.

Drug testing may compel users of relatively harmless marijuana to switch to
harder drugs to avoid testing positive.

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. A student who takes ecstasy, meth,
LSD or OxyContin on Friday night will likely test clean on Monday morning.
If you think students don't know this, think again. Anyone capable of
running a search on the Internet 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 every year than all illegal
drugs combined. Instead of wasting money on counterproductive drug tests,
schools should invest in reality-based drug education.

Sincerely,

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A., Program Officer

Drug Policy Alliance

www.drugpolicy.org

Washington, DC