'ATHLETICS DRUG TEST' IS COUNTERPRODUCTIVE

In response to "Schools salvage athletics drug test" (Dec. 4):

Student involvement in extracurricular activities has been shown to reduce
drug use. Forcing students [in Gaston County schools] to undergo degrading
drug tests as a prerequisite will only discourage extracurricular activity.
It may also compel users of relatively harmless marijuana to switch to
harder drugs such as meth 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. 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 often 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.

Robert Sharpe, Washington, D.C.