Random Drug Test Ban OK’d
24 June 2004Bret 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.
Guilty Until Proven Innocent
25 February 2004Clay 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.
Positive Drug Test Troops Deployed
24 February 2004Twenty-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.
No “Silver Bullet”
28 January 2004Last 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.
Drug Testing’s Negative Results
23 October 2003Joseph 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.
Seeing Is Believing: Teens’ Parents Could Soon Use Eye-Scan Drug Test
31 August 2003So 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.
Thief Makes Off With Lots Of Urine
21 August 2003Athens City Police are investigating a daring urine heist that took place sometime last Thursday night or Friday morning.
Airline Staff Sign Drug Petition
16 August 2003Qantas management has been handed a petition signed by nearly 9000 employees opposing random drug testing.
Keeping Kids Off Drugs: Pragmatism vs. Zero Tolerance
02 June 2003The 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.
Drug Testing In Schools: Can It Cause Harm?
22 May 2003Many schools and districts are performing drug tests or are considering drug screens for students entering competitive sports, other physical extracurricular activities such as school band and cheerleading, and non-active, extracurricular activities such as chess club or the debate team. A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling permits this to occur. Local school districts need not adopt this practice, however, and states are still permitted to disallow this practice to protect individual rights within the state’s constitution.
Police Slam Drug Test, Forced Exams On Officers “Ludicrous”
01 March 2003Forcing high-risk police officers to urinate into a cup is a ludicrous violation of human rights, says the head of Calgary’s cop association. Sgt. Al Koenig says a recommendation that Toronto police officers be forced to undergo drug testing before being promoted or assigned to high-risk units like the drug squad is ridiculous and would never fly in Calgary.
Shy Bladder During Drug Test Gets Some Workers Fired
16 February 2003Tom Smith worried he was in for trouble on a Wednesday morning last November, when a supervisor pulled the assembly line worker aside and told him to the report to the factory nurse’s station.
Can Marijuana Help You Drive?
28 January 2003While no responsible person would ever advocate the use of drugs for drivers, tests using a recently developed video game called Burnout have thrown up some surprise statistics. The testers found that a moderate amount of cannabis actually improved driving performance among those they studied. Results from another recent study apparently also show that people drive both faster and safer while under the influence of the drug.
“Go” Pills For F-16 Pilots Gets Close Look
04 January 2003The Air Force calls them "go" pills, and that is what they do: keep pilots going in the air long after their tired minds and bodies would have preferred to fall asleep.
What An Amazing Scientific Study
03 January 2003The people forcing Oregon teenagers to participate in drug research published their early data this week, and the results were hardly shocking: A school that randomly demands urine samples from students appears to have a lower rate of drug use than a school that doesn’t. Head researcher Dr. Linn Goldberg is already using the results as proof that drug testing likely "works." We question that logic, as well as the judgment of school leaders who require students to be laboratory rats in order to participate in school activities.
The research should be permanently suspended.