DRUG TESTING OF KIDS IS UP TO THE PARENTS

Regarding the proposed drug testing for the Lawrence County students
Daily Independent, Jan. 23), drug testing of children should be
between the child and the parent - with their own money - without
intrusion by the schools or the state. Stop asking the government to
raise other people's children with my tax dollars.

Making people urinate on demand beginning when they are very young
desensitizes them to the governments' war on people's privacy,
personal liberties and dignity in the name of ``the drug problem"
which, in reality, is a prohibition problem.

Regarding drug testing of teachers: From the very first ``drug test"
to the present, the very nature of the methods used for ``screening"
reduce these ``tests" to nothing more than ``lifestyle testing."
Furthermore, only certain lifestyles result in a ``failure" of these
tests. It's not about public safety or employee safety, and it is not
about identifying true real-time impairment of employees. It's about
fear, control and oppression.

Moreover, the most popular methods of testing (urine, sweat, blood
and hair) do not measure true, ``real time" impairment. They only
measure non-psychoactive metabolites that can be present days or
weeks after the effects of substances have subsided.

What we have is a flawed system whereby a majority of impaired people
aren't detected until after they have hurt or killed someone else or
themselves while, at the same time, many unimpaired individuals
involved in accidents may be fired/prosecuted because they ``tested"
positive for something that took place days or weeks ago on their own
time.

Myron Von Hollingsworth,
Fort Worth, Texas