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Schools May Use Spray to Trace Kids’ Drug Use
Posted by A. Shapiro
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Two years after approving the use of drug-sniffing dogs, Broward County schools may have another narcotic-fighting weapon: an aerosol spray that detects residue on school desks or backpacks, similar to bomb-detection equipment used in airports. Despite research that shows drug use is down among high school seniors since the early 1980s, school systems nationwide are becoming more aggressive at trying to curtail the problem. And the federal government is helping, with grants to more than 20 school systems that want to try the new spray. If the Broward School Board approves the kits this fall, a principal could rub sticky paper on a locker or desk—or anything else that might have been touched by a drug user—and then spray it… Read More
Random Drug Test Ban OK’d
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Bret Harte Union High School in Angels Camp probably will stop testing student-athletes for drugs if a legislative effort to ban random checks becomes law, Superintendent Joseph Wilimek said Wednesday. Senate Bill 1386 would allow a test only if there is “reasonable suspicion” that a student is using drugs. The measure advanced out of the Assembly Education Committee on Wednesday and is close to reaching Gov. Schwarzenegger’s desk. The measure needs final approval from the full Assembly; the Senate already passed it. Wilimek, whose Calaveras County high school is the only one in the Northern San Joaquin Valley and foothills with a random drug-testing program, said the bill would open up too many legal and public relations challenges if a… Read More
Guilty Until Proven Innocent
Posted by A. Shapiro
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Clay Cochran isn’t an NBA star. Nor is he a pilot, a soldier or a crane operator. But Cochran, an 18-year-old football player on the honor roll at Oak Mountain High School in the affluent suburbs of Birmingham, Ala., has something in common with the people in those jobs. He’s subject to random drug tests. Cochran’s school doesn’t have any reason to believe he takes drugs, but it tests him nonetheless. That’s because Oak Mountain’s district is among the vanguard of schools requiring kids to submit to random drug tests before allowing them to join the chess club, the cheerleading squad or any other extracurricular activity. Cochran, for one, has a problem with the policy. “It makes you feel like… Read More
Positive Drug Test Troops Deployed
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Twenty-one Iowa National Guard troops who tested positive for drug use on the eve of their deployment were sent overseas anyway, despite the Army’s “zero tolerance” policy. Now the Army must decide how to deal with them when they return. Officials at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, which serves as a multistate jumping-off point for Reserve and Guard troops, said about 13 soldiers from other states who tested positive for drugs were also sent to Iraq. Fort McCoy officials said some of the soldiers apparently used the drugs with the intention of getting caught and sent home. “On a certain level, it would be perverse to throw people out because of their misconduct, when other people who did not engage in that… Read More
No “Silver Bullet”
Posted by A. Shapiro
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Last week it was “WMD” all over again in the President’s State of the Union message. This time the unsubstantiated claims and wrongheaded policy were aimed at America’s schoolchildren in this latest effort to get them to “just say no” to illegal drugs. Citing recent declines in illegal drug use among teenagers, and couched in loving and caring rhetoric, Bush credited random drug testing with the reduction. He then proposed an additional $23 million for schools opting to use, as Drug Czar John Walters touts, this “silver bullet.” Immediately following, HR 3720 was introduced in the House by Rep. John Peterson (R-5th/PA), providing grants under the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act to schools that institute random drug testing… Read More
Drug Testing’s Negative Results
Posted by A. Shapiro
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Joseph Reilly, a bearded middle-aged man who is the founder and president of Florida Drug Screening, Inc., stands at a lectern in a Washington, D.C., hotel meeting room less than 300 yards from the White House. His topic is selling employee drug-testing programs to small and medium-sized businesses. Reilly is preaching to the choir. He’s speaking to 85 colleagues who are assembled at a daylong workshop organized by the Drug and Alcohol Testing Industry Association. The attendees are an earnest-looking group of primarily boomer-aged entrepreneurs and executives who seem utterly unconcerned about shifting attitudes toward their industry. As he speaks, members of the audience nod and scribble notes in “Drug and Alcohol Testing Programs for Non-Mandated Employers” workbooks. What Reilly… Read More
Seeing Is Believing: Teens’ Parents Could Soon Use Eye-Scan Drug Test
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So say several local substance abuse counselors who want to bring a new type of drug testing machine to Martin County. They say the cutting-edge computer technology—which scans the human eye to detect drug use—could help local parents seeking more effective ways to prevent their children from turning to drugs. Currently, few parents inquire about drug testing options for their children. That might change, counselors say, if detecting drug use didn’t require a urine or blood sample—if a drug test becomes as simple as peering into an ATM machine. That’s possible with the PassPoint Substance Abuse Screener, which determines the presence of drugs and alcohol by recording the way the eye reacts to light. Martin County officials hope to purchase… Read More
Thief Makes Off With Lots Of Urine
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Athens City Police are investigating a daring urine heist that took place sometime last Thursday night or Friday morning. According to an incident report, sometime between 9 p.m. Thursday and 7 a.m. Friday, someone broke into the offices of the Ohio Adult Parole Authority on East State Street by forcing the door open. An office in the building was ransacked. According to Terry Minney, regional administrator for the parole agency, the intruder or intruders made off with 89 cups of urine. These were drug-testing samples from parolees and people on probation. One likely conclusion would be that the thief or thieves had broken parole terms by using drugs, and wanted to escape detection. Minney, however, said that “I’m not sure… Read More
Airline Staff Sign Drug Petition
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Qantas management has been handed a petition signed by nearly 9000 employees opposing random drug testing. An industrial court hearing into a dispute over a Qantas plan to introduce random breath and urine tests was adjourned until September 9 yesterday to allow for further negotiations. The Australian Industrial Relations Commission hearing followed last week’s decision that Qantas confine any drug and alcohol testing to senior executives and non-union members until the dispute is resolved. This entry was posted on Saturday, August 16th, 2003 at 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Read More
Keeping Kids Off Drugs: Pragmatism vs. Zero Tolerance
Posted by A. Shapiro
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The emotionally charged issue of keeping teenagers off drugs has prompted a variety of programs and policies. The problem is that we don’t know whether they work. For more than 20 years we have carried on a huge experiment on our teenagers. Beginning in the early 1980s with Nancy Reagan’s simplistic “just say no” mantra, we have tried persuasion, encouragement and scare tactics. We started by subjecting our kids to school-based prevention programs (such as DARE), and provocative (if ridiculous) commercials (such as the egg in the frying pan). Obviously, our teenagers did not stop using drugs. In fact, year after year, government studies have indicated that by the time they graduate from high school, half of American teenagers will… Read More