Free Republic

Discussions on Welfare reform often included the proposal of random drug testing for the recipients. That language could also be included in the Health Care Reform Bill for those who accept the public option. Why should a tax payer be forced to pay for people who voluntarily wish to damage themselves and burden society with the costs? This question should be brought in the current discussion. The support from the left would die very quickly if that language were to be adopted. It also may force Pelosi to not include the public option in the bill.

snip In the past, such efforts have been stymied by legal and cost concerns, said Christine Nelson, a program manager with the National Conference of State Legislatures. But states' bigger fiscal crises, and the surging demand for public assistance, could change that. "It's an example of where you could cut costs at the expense of a segment of society that's least able to defend themselves," said Frank Crabtree, executive director of the West Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Drug testing is not the only restriction envisioned for people receiving public assistance: a bill in the Tennessee Legislature...

I read an article on Fox News this morning that shows several states considering random drug testing of recipients of food stamps, unemployment benefits and welfare. If you think about it, why not? It’s no different that getting drug tested at your place of employment, as pointed on below. “Nobody’s being forced into these assistance programs,” said Craig Blair, a Republican in the West Virginia Legislature who has created a Web site — notwithmytaxdollars.com — that bears a bobble-headed likeness of himself advocating this position. “If so many jobs require random drug tests these days, why not these benefits?” Blair...

Sylvia Syvenky went for a routine dental appointment in early October, expecting to have two caps on her teeth replaced. But something went terribly wrong. “I felt like I was choking,” Mrs. Syvenky said. “I couldn’t take a breath. All sorts of gurgly sounds were coming out of me.” She was rushed by ambulance to University Hospital near her home in Edmonton, Alberta, where doctors placed a mask on her face and forced air into her lungs. They told her she had heart failure. After her condition improved, they asked her to sign up for a study of a new...

The two whizzes who created a device to beat drugs tests just learned a valuable lesson: You don't pee on the United States government out of a fake penis and tell 'em it's raining. Robert Catalano and George Wills have just plead guilty in U.S. District Court for conspiring to sell the Whizzinator -- a prosthetic penis sold with a heating device and dried urine which, quite obviously, helps people fake their way through drug tests

Drug-testing proposal gets mixed response State House candidate wants to require it for anyone receiving government assistance By Jason Spencer jason.spencer@shj.com Published: Monday, October 6, 2008 at 3:15 a.m. Last Modified: Monday, October 6, 2008 at 9:06 a.m. Some clapped, some looked confused, some looked downright apprehensive. A couple of women in the back of the room said a heartfelt “amen.” Order a Reprint Weldon DavisBut when state House candidate Weldon Davis announced at a recent county Democratic Party rally that, if elected, he would push legislation to require drug testing on virtually anyone receiving government assistance — aside from...

Folks, I'm so mad I can't see straight and I hope the smarter(than me) people here at FR can advise us on this. At school registration we got a handout informing us about a change to school policy. Starting this school year, any student who wishes to participate in any extra curricular or co-curricular activities must consent to random drug testing! Needless to say I was 'stuned' and speechless. We're not a big metropolitan school district, we're a very small, rural school. This was apparently done during a closed session of the school board's meeting over the summer. As far...

River Dell Regional High School was one of three schools statewide to get a grant for its random drug testing program, federal officials said today. The school was awarded $43,100 for the upcoming school year as part of a $5.8 million grant program from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Schools in Hillsborough and Brick also received grants. “It’s another tool to reinforce positive decisions,” said Stephen Schatz, spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. “It’s really geared toward treatment.” River Dell Superintendent Patrick Fletcher said the money will fund better testing that...

This is Belgian cyclist Kevin van Impe. His wife gave birth prematurely this year, and their son died hours after he was born. Last week van Impe was at a crematorium, making arrangements for his son's funeral, when a drug tester representing cycling's governing body showed up. Van Impe asked whether the tester would be kind enough to give him some space during his grieving process, but the tester would have none of it, telling him it was provide a urine sample immediately or be banned from the sport for two years: "He wouldn't even come back later in the...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A city can't require all job applicants to be tested for narcotics and must instead show why drug use in a particular job would be dangerous, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled against the city of Woodburn, Ore., which argued it was entitled to maintain a drug-free workplace by requiring job candidates to be screened for drugs and alcohol. The city was sued by Janet Lanier, whose job offer as a part-time page at the city library was withdrawn in 2004 when she refused a drug...

Like a lot of folks in this state, I have a job. I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as they see fit. In order to get that paycheck. I am required to pass a random urine test, which I have no problem with. What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don't have to pass a urine test. Shouldn't one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check, because I have to pass one to earn it for them? Please...

Making a central thread for people to link articles, post comments, discuss, etc -- the Floyd Landis, Tour de France Doping scandal.

Dawn of the zombies 27 May 2006 From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues. Robin Orwant IT STARTS out like any silicon chip: intricate patterns are drawn with light and etched with acid. But this is no microprocessor destined for a computer. Instead there are minuscule chambers filled with human cells: liver cells, lung cells, fat cells, all connected by tiny channels. A nutrient fluid is pumped through the channels, flowing from one chamber to another just as blood flows from organ to organ in the body. That's the whole point. The chip, created by Michael...

WASHINGTON -- Student athletes, musicians, and others who participate in after-school activities could increasingly be subject to random drug testing under a program promoted by the Bush administration. White House officials say drug testing is an effective way to keep students away from harmful substances like marijuana and crystal methamphetamine, and have held seminars across the country to promote the practice to local school officials. But some parents, educators, and school officials call it a heavy-handed, ineffective way to discourage drug use that undermines trust and invades students' privacy. ''Our money should be going toward educating young people, not putting...

Student athletes, musicians and others who participate in after school activities could increasingly be subject to random drug testing under a program promoted by the Bush administration. White House officials say drug testing is an effective way to keep students away from harmful substances like marijuana and crystal methamphetamine, and have held seminars across the country to promote the practice to local school officials. But some parents, educators and school officials call it a heavy-handed, ineffective way to discourage drug use that undermines trust and invades students' privacy. "Our money should be going toward educating young people, not putting them...

SAN DIEGO ---- Calling student drug use a "national public-health problem," the White House's deputy drug czar told educators Wednesday that random drug testing can be a potent and effective deterrent strategy. Mary Ann Solberg, deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, strongly endorsed student screening before a crowd of roughly 150 school and community leaders at a conference on drug testing held at San Diego's Hilton Hotel in Mission Valley. Opponents of student drug testing also attended the conference to ask questions of the speakers and speak with reporters in the hallways. "We see this as...

Please access the enclosed Ann Coulter link and view list of athletes who support President George W. Bush.

Black Police Officers in Boston Sue Department, Alleging Racial Bias in Drug-Related Dismissals The Associated Press Published: Jul 27, 2005 BOSTON (AP) - Seven black police officers who were fired after failing a drug test that relied on hair samples have sued the police department, alleging the screening method is racially biased. The officers were fired between 2002 and 2004 after they tested positive for cocaine. Members of the force are tested each year. The officers' lawyer, Rheba Rutkowski, who filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in Suffolk Superior Court, said the test results can be skewed by the texture of...

THE efficiency of a high-tech drug-testing machine unveiled in Britain was amply proven when the government minister showing it off tested positive for cannabis. Edwina Hart, social justice minister in the semi-autonomous regional government of Wales, was found to have been in contact with the drug after having a hand swab analysed by the Ion Track narcotics machine. William Graham, a member of the Welsh Assembly, who had arranged for police to demonstrate the machine at the Assembly building, also tested positive for cannabis. However, the politicians were keen to stress that such was the power of the device, positive...

Thursday, May 19, 2005 Latin Americans failing steroid tests at higher rate By Tom Farrey ESPN.com SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – At mention of the word "anabolic," the clerk behind the counter at a GNC store points to a shelf that displays the container of a muscle-building agent – $100 worth of souped-up pills, hope in a bottle to many of her clients. "This is what our baseball players buy," she said. She is referring to Anotesten, the brand name for a product based on a steroid precursor, a chemical that metabolizes into testosterone once it's in the body. The...

Drug Test Nation Get a whiff of the new pot-sniffing technologies, coming to a highway near you One look at the Cozart RapiScan, a self-proclaimed complete "on-site oral fluid drugs of abuse diagnostic system," and it's obvious: This isn't your parents' drug test. Gone are the golden days of the plastic collection cup. The Cozart saliva testing system comes in a spiffy silver suitcase and consists of an oral fluid collection swab, a disposable test cartridge, its own handheld digital computer, and a portable printer "for a permanent record of test results." The official U.S. distributor of the RapiScan, The...

A world-first random roadside drug testing facility took just 15 minutes to detect its first alleged drugged-driver in Melbourne on Monday. Assistant Commissioner Bob Hastings said police did not know what to expect when they began testing on Monday in Whitehall Street, Yarraville, in Melbourne's inner-west. "We turned out here this morning with the expectation of not quite knowing what to expect really, and it was surprising that so early we got some driver who tested positive," he told reporters. "We will crank this up as we move towards Christmas and focus on those areas where we believe there's high...

WASHINGTON (AP)--The military is increasing drug testing of its forces serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, in part out of concern that troops will turn to drugs because of the stress of combat, Pentagon officials said Friday. Drug use is low in the military and primarily limited to marijuana, said Mary Beth Long, the deputy assistant defense secretary for counternarcotics. She spoke with the American Forces Press Service, an internal military news service. But concerns about drug use center on Afghanistan, which has become the world's leading provider of opium since the U.S.-led campaign that drove the Taliban from power three...

Imagine if your kid wanted to tryout for cheerleading, but had to agree to go through random drug testing first. One Riverside County high school is moving closer to that. But not everyone is on board with this idea. Come next year, some students here at this school might be a little more cautious when choosing whether to experiment with drugs. If approved by the school board, Banning High would be the first school in the county to make students who go out for extra curricular activates, like football or band, consent to random drug tests. But besides random drug...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Siding with his business allies, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed bills Saturday that would have raised the minimum wage to $7.75 an hour and required economic impact reports before local governments approve Wal-Mart-like mega-stores. The Republican governor also turned down legislation that would have limited drug testing of students. He contended the minimum wage and super-store legislation would have hurt the state's economy and said drug testing policies should be left up to school officials. "I cannot support legislation that eliminates the ability of local school districts to make decisions based on the needs and values of their...

GROVEPORT MADISON Students must pass drug test to park Saturday, August 28, 2004 Bill Bush THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Before they could park their cars this school year at Groveport Madison High School, students had to urinate in a cup. The new drug-testing program for students who drive to school has some students upset and the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio questioning its constitutionality. The measure is to discourage students from driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, school officials say. Previously, only student athletes were tested. "I want people in this community to realize that we have...

Reports that the drug giant GlaxoSmithKline buried evidence that its top-selling antidepressant, Paxil, is not effective in children have stimulated calls for a public registry of company-sponsored research. It's about time. You might imagine that this was an isolated case of corporate misbehavior, but in fact suppressing unfavorable research results is fairly standard practice in the pharmaceutical industry. Before drug companies are allowed to bring a new drug to market, they are required by the Food and Drug Administration to conduct clinical trials to show that the drug is safe and effective. They are supposed to provide the agency with...

TWIN FALLS, Idaho -- A family is suing the Twin Falls School District over its policy of mandatory drug testing for students in extracurricular activities. Joe and Denise Stanzak, whose daughters Danielle and Anastasia are Twin Falls High School students, contend the policy is too broad and violates students' rights. "The school district has created a policy that causes substantial harms to its students," Joe Stanzak, the family's attorney, argued in filing documents. "The policy discourages from participation in student activities individuals who would otherwise benefit from experiences outside the strictly academic curriculum. "Exclusion of students from these activities will...

Head teachers in British schools will be given new powers to order pupils to undergo random tests for illegal drugs, Prime Minister Tony Blair said in an interview with a Sunday newspaper. "If heads believe they have a problem in their school then they should be able to do random drug testing," Mr Blair told the News of the World. Education authorities will be able to take urine samples from pupils and use sniffer dogs to search school grounds for drugs, according the newspaper. "Guidance will be given to head teachers next month which is going to give them specifically...

Employees run into unwritten rule of workplace: Urinate on demand By ADAM GELLER AP Business Writer Tom 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. There, with a plastic urine specimen cup in hand, 40 ounces of water sloshing around inside him and the nurse waiting expectantly, Smith says he spent three hours straining to do what most people barely think about. But when the time allotted for the random drug test was finished, the...

In the battle to keep drunk drivers off the streets, few weapons have proven as effective as the Ignition Interlock device. It has been so effective, that one lawmaker wants to put a device in every car in the state. There's no question the device works -- if you're drunk, the Interlock won't let you drive. Supporters like Rep. Ken Martinez say if there's an interlock in every car, no one drives drunk. "Imagine that we technologically prevent someone from driving while drunk because the car just won't start. Imagine how much money would we save," Martinez explained. And lives,...

O.K. This qualifies as a Vanity, I guess. I haven't done one in years, though, so please humor me. [p]I am a Federal Healthcare Employee who is also a Union Official. I recently was informed that a directive has been sent down from MEDCOM that we were to begin "Implementation and Impact" meetings with management about a NON-NEGOTIABLE requirement to add postions to the "Testing Designated Positions" list as provided by AR 600-85. [p]A little research reveals that AR 600-85 limits designating "Testing Designated Positions" to positions that meet defined criteria. Employees that carry firearms, operate vehicles over 26,000 lbs....

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...

May 19, 2003 Student drug testing not effective in reducing drug use ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Drug testing of students in schools does not deter drug use, University of Michigan researchers have concluded, based on a large, multi-year national sample of the nation's high schools and middle schools. The findings were reported recently in the Journal of School Health. The research challenges the premise that has been central to the rationale for schools adopting a drug testing policy. The contention that testing is a deterrent to drug use also was an important consideration in a recent split decision by the United States...

Tecumseh School Board Votes To Continue Drug Testing Policy Policy Upheld By Supreme Court Last Year POSTED: 10:02 a.m. CDT June 10, 2003 TECUMSEH, Okla. -- The Tecumseh school board has voted 3-1 to continue a drug testing policy that survived a U.S. Supreme Court challenge a year ago. The policy calls for random drug tests of middle and high school students who take part in extracurricular activities. Those who refuse the test are not allowed to participate in sports or other activities. The policy was challenged by a former student who was active in band, choir and an...

Drug Testing Would Dry Up Demand, Colombia Says Colombia's president proposed a new front in the global war on drugs: mass drug testing for Americans and Europeans. Reviving the traditional conflict between drug-producing and drug-consuming nations, President Álvaro Uribe said yesterday the tests would dry up demand for drugs that Colombian insurgents sell to finance their decades-old civil war. "We need more serious commitments from the consumer countries," Uribe said at a conference of Spanish and Latin-American attorneys general. He called on "the people in the United States and Europe to submit to a drug test to help us conquer...

<p>A new federal rule has plumbers across the state boiling mad, because they have to go through costly training and drug tests in order to qualify to work on home gas lines.</p> <p>The federal Department of Transportation edict went into effect Oct. 28, though it was promulgated three years ago, and it requires that all personnel who work on residential gas lines, from the street to the home, must obtain the new certification and agree to drug testing.</p>

Dole Links License To Drug Test Elizabeth Dole wants to require all teenagers to pass a drug test before getting a driver's license. Dole, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate and a former transportation secretary, has promised to push for a federal law pressuring states to enforce such a measure. "Wouldn't that help them understand how important it is to be drug free?" Dole asked at a recent campaign stop in Washington, N.C. "It's not cool (to abuse drugs). It kills." Then-President Bill Clinton proposed a nearly identical measure in 1996 while campaigning against Dole's husband, former Sen. Bob Dole, and...

A federal judge has struck down rules that required drug companies to test their products in children. The rules were intended to give doctors and parents more information about the drugs' safety and the proper dosage. "The pediatric rule exceeds the Food and Drug Administration's statutory authority and is therefore invalid," said Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. of the Federal District Court here. In the ruling, issued on Thursday, Judge Kennedy said that the food and drug agency was overreaching, just as when it tried to regulate tobacco products. In both cases, he said, the agency's rules were inconsistent with...

New Frontier in Random Drug Testing: Checking High Schoolers for Tobacco Breath mints won't cut it anymore for students who have been smoking in the bathroom -- some schools around the country are administering urine tests to teenagers to find out whether they have been using tobacco. Opponents say such testing violates students' rights and can keep them out of the extracurricular activities they need to stay on track. But some advocates say smoking in the boys' room is a ticket to more serious drug use. "Some addicted drug users look back to cigarettes as the start of it all,"...

PLAYERS AGREE TO STEROID TEST NEW YORK - Baseball players dropped their decades-old opposition to mandatory drug testing, agreeing to be checked for illegal steroids starting next year. Under Wednesday's proposal, which addresses one of the key issues in contract talks, players would be subjected to one or more unannounced tests in 2003 to determine the level of steroid use. If the survey showed "insignificant" use, a second round of tests would be set up in 2004 to verify the results. If more than 5 percent of the tests were positive in either survey, players would be randomly tested for...

<p>WASHINGTON — "Folks, it's saleable, but we have to stand up and sell it."</p> <p>That pitch Thursday morning came from Rep. John Peterson as he fervently hawked expanded drug testing in the schools. "We need to raise this debate nationally," the Pennsylvania Republican declared. "Testing makes a huge difference. Testing can help parents know when their kids are in trouble. Testing can help schools know when they have a lot of kids doing drugs. Kids will know that if they do drugs, they will get help."</p>

BOARD OF ED. OF INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DIST.NO. 92 OF POTTAWATOMIE CTY. V. EARLS (01-332) Web-accessible at: http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/01-332.ZS.html Argued March 19, 2002 -- Decided June 27, 2002 Opinion author: Thomas =============================================================== The Student Activities Drug Testing Policy (Policy) adopted by the Tecumseh, Oklahoma, School District (School District) requires all middle and high school students to consent to urinalysis testing for drugs in order to participate in any extracurricular activity. In practice, the Policy has been applied only to competitive extracurricular activities sanctioned by the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association (OSSAA). Respondent high school students and their parents brought this 42 U.S....

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/06/27/national1005EDT0546.DTL (06-27) 07:05 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court approved random drug tests for many public high school students Thursday, ruling that schools' interest in ridding their campuses of drugs outweighs an individual's right to privacy. The 5-4 decision would allow the broadest drug testing the court has yet permitted for young people whom authorities have no particular reason to suspect of wrongdoing. It applies to students who join competitive after-school activities or teams, a category that includes many if not most middle-school and high-school students. Previously these tests had been allowed only for student athletes. ©2002 Associated...

ALTURAS, Calif. -- Seab McDonald doesn't care what outsiders think: He's convinced there's a dangerous teenage drug problem in this folksy, far-removed corner of Northern California. And the gray-haired community patriarch wants to put a stop to it now. So McDonald and other members of the Modoc Joint Unified School District Board of Trustees are leaning toward taking a gamble they know could bring them unwanted notoriety and even lawsuits. With the U.S. Supreme Court signaling it may soon let public schools expand drug testing beyond student athletes to include those involved in any after-school activity, Modoc officials will vote...