White House Drug Czar Recommends Drug Testing in Schools

Associated Press ^ | Oct. 8, 2003

[Wolfie]

White House Drug Czar Recommends Drug Testing in Schools

Boston -- President Bush's drug czar told New England governors Wednesday that drug testing in schools would be an effective way to combat what is a growing problem of drug use among young people, especially in the Northeast.

The region's six governors and John Walters, director of the Office of Drug Control Policy, met at Faneuil Hall in an anti-drug summit focusing on New England's heroin epidemic.

New England has more people ages 12 and over dependent on illegal drugs than any other region of the nation, according to Walters.

Heroin as cheap as $4 per bag has made it easier for young people to get hooked, he said.

"This is a tool that will make a difference," Walters said of drug testing of school children. "It's time has come."

New England has placed a "national face" on the growing heroin problem, said Karen Tandy, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"It is a big business," Tandy told the governors and the assembled audience. "You might as well be sitting at the border of Colombia in this Northeast region."

High level heroin traffickers are transporting drugs directly to New England bypassing the traditional transport route through New York City, and are marketing heroin directly to children, Tandy said.

"Colombian traffickers have created what is in effect a franchise marketing system," Tandy said.

Tandy and several governors said more federal money is needed to combat the problem.

[Republicus2001]

Citizen Recommends Drug Testing in Public Offices

[fightu4it]

Random drug tests for Congressmen first.

Come on Congress, lead by example!

[TheOtherOne]

Walters is a pathetic excuse for an American.

Live free or die

[Support Free Republic]

Aww man! Enough of the fundraiser posts!!!

Only YOU can make fundraiser posts go away. Please contribute!

[U S Army EOD]

I would go along with that if they would test the faculty first.

[11th Earl of Mar]

Let's get right to it...

How about drug sniffing dogs at rock concerts?

[Wolfie]

Heroin as cheap as $4 per bag has made it easier for young people to get hooked, he said.

After 60 or so years of Prohibition, they've got the price down to kiddie levels. Way to go Drug Czar!

[thoughtomator]

I second that. Whatever they want to do to America's children should be done first to the children of the legislators.

[Elliott Jackalope]

Good Lord, they've finally done it. They've made heroin cheaper and easier to get than pot. Way to go drug warriors!

[Wolfie]

And with the Drug Czar running around saying pot is the most dangerous drug of all, he's steering the kids right to the hard stuff.

[Lexington Green]

Hell, no
We won't go

[Brian S]

I think the feds should just set up roving test centers that move from neighborhood to neighborhood.

All are tested. If they knock on your door and you answer, you are tested.

If you don't open the door, they come in anyway and have a look around.

Call it War on Terror and the sheeple will gladly comply.

Somebody has to "protect us"!!! /sarcasm off

[Trailerpark Badass]

Good Lord, they've finally done it. They've made heroin cheaper and easier to get than pot. Way to go drug warriors!

Hell, cheaper than cigarettes.

[GretchenEE]

interesting concept

[Tailback]

I say random drug tests on every single person recieving a paycheck from the government. Whether they are a politician, judge, attorney, teacher, or welfare recipient. If they test positive, the first time they get counseling, the second time no more checks.

[A CA Guy]

I can see that in some cases over limited areas as needed.

[Wolfie]

Random drug tests for Congressmen first.

Oddly enough, the only time the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that drug tests are unconstitutional was when the state of Georgia tried to apply them to - you guessed it - judges and congressmen. Go figure.

[Protagoras]

My children do not attend these Nazi schools, but they would test them over my dead body.

[11B3]

Wonderful. Now we've got another McCaffrey that's out of control and willing to walk all over the Constitution to get his job accomplished.

It's Fed a$$holes like this guy that makes those of us who don't do drugs side with the legalization campaign. These crusaders are far more dangerous than any dealer - dealers merely fill a demand, while these JBTs force you into their product (a police/nanny state).

[tall_tex]

....After 60 or so years....

Hey youngin's, I am sick and tired of watching billions going down a hole, users going to jail, dead kids in our streets because of this lost war on drugs. We can card kids for beer and smokes but are not adult enough to make these products legal and tax them like beer and smokes and control who purchases them. Are there ways for under aged to buy liquor and ciggs, yes but it is a start. Billions wasted and lives lost are due to this failed war.

I have been thinking about this a long time. Now

[U S Army EOD]

The lion is not the thing to put on right now, read all the post about the bears and the tigers. Have you no sensitivity at all?

[vinylsidingman]

"Colombian traffickers have created what is in effect a franchise marketing system," Tandy said.

Well,, Mr Tandy,,, if you know where its coming from,, seems to me a couple well placed daisy cutters could easily erradicate that problem almost overnight ? hmmmmmmmmm ?

[contessa machiaveli]

what drugs are they going to test for? painkillers, pot, heroin, coke, vitamins? where does it start and when will it end.
the drug war is a joke, while the DEA and local agencies confiscate $100's of millions of pot the more dangerous hard stuff gets in (because the sellers are more motivated and much more dangerous).
choose you addiction just make sure it isn't pot.

[Mears]

Good point! Cigs cost about $4.50 per pack here in Mass.Maybe it's time to switch addictions.

Massachusetts is so darned liberal is it any wonder the kids are on drugs?

[Britton J Wingfield]

Yeah, that would do a great job of shifting the suppliers elsewhere.

[TheOtherOne]

The lion is not the thing to put on right now, read all the post about the bears and the tigers. Have you no sensitivity at all?

Are you kidding. We cannot look at lions now because two guys got bit? That is a little over the top. What is offensive about lions?

[Britton J Wingfield]

Some companies now test for nicotine. Not hard to imagine schools following suit.

[cruiserman]

Add another to the list of reasons to homeschool.

[microgood]

Bush better put a muzzle on this guy if he wants to stay in office.

[11B3]

Speaking of billions of dollars, I read a statistic the other day that the WOsD currently costs more PER YEAR than the entire conflict in 'Nam.

And why do we work for 5 months a year to pay off our tax bill? The WOsD has a large percentage in that when you count incarceration costs, legal fees, work lost, productivity lost, the number of required LEOs, the required number of jailers, etc. What a total waste of our money, not to mention the number of low level offenders who spend hard time with real criminals and come out just like them.

[Britton J Wingfield]

Hell, the last guy was pushing to test chess players.

[Wolfie]

Definitely not fair is the pieces are moving by themselves.

[Britton J Wingfield]

unless you are playing Battle Chess

[randog]

Heroin as cheap as $4 per bag has made it easier for young people to get hooked...

How big is "a bag" of heroin? A Hefty bag?

[Britton J Wingfield]

I bet that bag would suddenly be appraised at a lot more than $4 as soon it was siezed by police.

[Reagan Man]

White House Drug Czar Recommends Drug Testing in Schools

Field day for the ACLU!

[microgood]

Would not anyone to have an unfair disadvantage, would we?

[PropheticZero]

Let me guess. When they detect that a kid has used drugs they give him the boot right out of school and into a job selling drugs to his former peers. Probably part of another zero tolerance policy.

[PropheticZero]

Let me guess. When they detect that a kid has used drugs they give him the boot right out of school and into a job selling drugs to his former peers. Probably part of another zero tolerance policy.

[LibKill]

A few years ago at a small university in Texas, the Faculty Senate proposed such a move.

The Student Senate said "Great! You go first!"

When the faculty members found out that someone would be staring at their genitals while they urinated they dropped the whole idea.

FReedom was well served.

[robertpaulsen]

"After 60 or so years of Prohibition, they've got the price down to kiddie levels."

Well, well, well. They got the price down and they didn't have to legalize it to do it.

The one good thing will be that there will be no more crime by heroin users stealing to support their habit. Not at these prices, right MrLeRoy?

[enraged]

My thoughts too!
I'm sick of the (semi-)pretty little teachers telling me that they are trying to share their life experiences with my son's class to better prepare them for the future.
Geez man, some of these ditz' look like they are still seeing tracers from the LSD they dropped last summer during a bonfire/riot in front of the student union.

[inquest]

what drugs are they going to test for?

Ritalin?

[U S Army EOD]

I don't want to have to stay up all night trying to make up whitty comments about liberals being eaten by lions. I am afraid that is where this is going to lead. Refer back to the threads about the tigers and the bears. One low life has already insenuated by his post that Tigger was responsible for one of the attacks. He has footage to prove it even though I think it could be a possible hoax.

[Trailerpark Badass]

Let me guess. When they detect that a kid has used drugs they give him the boot right out of school and into a job selling drugs to his former peers. Probably part of another zero tolerance policy.

No, they'll divert him to an alternative school, and continue cutting resources for the good kids.

[Britton J Wingfield]

kerpow!

I think there will always be crime assosiated with drugs, regardless of their legality. A black market encourages organized crime, though, in a way that a free market does not.

i.e., people still steak beer, or get liquored up and attack others, but the vendors aren't doing drive-by shootings anymore.

[Trailerpark Badass]

The one good thing will be that there will be no more crime by heroin users stealing to support their habit.

Yeah, and kids won't have to bug their parents so much for "allowance."

[Wolfie]

Hmmm...low prices, high purity, "epidemic" levels of use. Giving up the Drug War would only mean the cops wouldn't get to bust heads anymore. Priorities, I guess.

[grania]

I would go along with that if they would test the faculty first.

There is absolutely no question that faculties should be drug-tested. There are in fact teachers that have an "it's okay" attitude about marijuana use, and tend to look the other way.

I would suspect that this attitude would be most prevelent among those who use drugs themselves.