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.

[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.