DRUG TESTS CAN HELP

In her May 7 letter, Melissa Gordon, a senior at Hanover Park High School,
claims that drug tests violate rights. Before retiring from a large New
Jersey utility, I wrote and implemented a drug testing policy for employees
of contractors working at electric and gas facilities. The policy was
modeled after policies of other companies that met all legal requirements
to protect the rights of workers but also to assure that workers were not
using illegal drugs.

We required that testing laboratories submit monthly reports indicating the
number, not the names, of those failing drug tests. We consistently
averaged about 5 percent using illegal drugs.

I often use the tragic stories of Darryl Strawberry and Robert Downey Jr.
when I discuss this subject with people who share Gordon's view.
Strawberry, a great athlete, never reached his potential because of
addiction to drugs. Downey, a talented actor, went to jail because of
drugs. If drug testing had been mandatory in their youth, it is very
possible that their drug use would have been detected and they could have
stopped before they were addicted.

Bob Barrett, Clark