Posted on 10/08/2002 4:35:09 AM PDT by Wolfie
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," said Jeff McAlpin, director of marketing for EDPM, a Birmingham drug-testing company.
Short of catching them in the act, school officials previously had no way of proving students had been smoking.
Testing students for drugs has spread in recent years and was given a boost in June when the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed random testing of those in extracurricular activities. Tobacco can easily be added to the usual battery of tests.
"I agree with it," said 16-year-old Vestavia Hills High School junior Rosemary Stafford, a member of the marching band. "It's illegal, it's addictive. Maybe the punishment shouldn't be as severe, but they should test for it."
In Alabama, where the legal age for purchasing and smoking tobacco products is 19, about a dozen districts, mostly in the Birmingham area, test for nicotine along with alcohol and several illegal drugs, including marijuana.
In most cases, the penalties for testing positive for cotinine -- a metabolic byproduct that remains in the body after smoking or chewing tobacco -- are the same as those for illegal drugs: The student's parents are notified and he or she is usually placed on school probation and briefly suspended from sports or other activities.
Alabama's Hoover school system randomly tested 679 of its 1,500 athletes for drug use this past school year. Fourteen high school students tested positive, 12 of them for tobacco.
Elsewhere around the country, schools in Blackford County, Ind., test for tobacco use in athletes, participants in other extracurricular activities, and students who take driver's education or apply for parking permits.
In Lockney, Texas, a federal judge recently struck down the district's testing of all students for the use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
In Columbia County, Fla., the school board will vote Tuesday on a testing policy that would include tobacco. Teenagers who take part in extracurricular activities or apply for permits to drive to school would be screened.
"Tobacco does and will affect a larger majority of the students than alcohol or drugs," said Gloria Spizey, the county's coordinator for Safe and Drug-Free Schools. "Tobacco use can be devastating. We felt it needed to stand with the other drugs."
Screenings can detect cotinine for up to 10 days in regular smokers of about a half a pack, or 10 cigarettes, a day, McAlpin said. Experts say it is unlikely that cotinine would collect in people exposed to secondhand smoke.
"Tobacco is illegal for them to have -- it's also a health and safety issue," said Phil Hastings, supervisor of safety and alternative education for schools in Decatur, which recently adopted a testing program that includes tobacco. "We've got a responsibility to let the kids know the dangers of tobacco use."
While random drug testing overall is being fought by the American Civil Liberties Union and students' rights groups, the addition of nicotine testing has drawn little opposition.
Guidelines published last month by the White House drug office do not specifically address tobacco testing.
"On tobacco, we have the same policy as on testing for drugs -- it may not be right for every school and community," said Jennifer de Vallance, press secretary for the office. "We encourage parents and officials to assess the extent and nature of the tobacco problem."
Shawn Heller, executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy in Washington, said tobacco use by teen-agers is a major problem, but testing for it is just another step in the invasion of students' privacy.
"We're making schools like prisons," he said.
It's like this:
Some people would say the only reason one would want to end affirmative action is because they are racists, and want the chance to discriminate. They dismiss the point that some those opposed to affirmative action hold that position because of principles that have nothing to do with racism.
It is the same with the WoD. Some people would say that the only reason one would want an end of the WoD is because they are users. They dismiss the point that many opposed to the WoD hold that position because of principles that have nothing to do with wanting to use themselves.
That is for the state's Constitution to say, not you.
It is telling that you would prefer it that way. In free countries, constitutions limit the power of government: All state powers not enumerated are prohibited. In oppressive countries, the opposite is true.
You would have state governments unencumbered by enumeration of powers. All powers would be assumed to be held, unless specifically prohibited. There is no end to what such a government, at any level, could do. That's not freedom.
And some are not. The honest thing for you to do when speaking of "the 'pro-dope' contingent on FR" is to acknowledge the possibility of honest zealotry.
Virginia's requires it:
Article I, Section 17. Construction of the Bill of Rights.
The rights enumerated in this Bill of Rights shall not be construed to limit other rights of the people not therein expressed.
Not at all. R-v-W, in effect, told states to obey the 14th amendment in the writing of abortion law. Outright prohibition of abortion was declared unconstitutional for a number of specified reasons. - Read it.
The contention that there is a "Constitutional right" to manufacture, sell and use illicit drugs invents such a "right" out of smoke.
Cut out the word "illicit", and the idiocy of your position is apparent. - Obviously there is a right to make, sell & use drugs. There has never been a granted power to ANY level of government to prohibit such activites.
- Drugs can be regulated, using constitutional laws and enforcement, as per the 14th. They can not be prohibited, as the act of prohibition violates other basic constitutional rights.
There is no such "Constitutional" right, which is why you never rise above sourceless assertion.
Oh, I expect Virginia courts have no more respect for the constitution they're sworn to uphold than does the USCC. Funny how a guy who (correctly) insists that Roe v Wade is bunk can turn around and insist that court decisions are definitive on the subject of the constitutionality of drug laws.
That is mission creep: from educator to law enforcement officer. Even worse, it ignores 4th Amendment rights.
Besides, they are trying to regulate behavior that happens outside of school. That's not the school's place.
An 18 year old could legally smoke outside school, and get kicked off a team. Also, non-smokers could test positive from inhaling second hand smoke outside school.
Your bluff was called and you don't even have a pair.
There is no such "Constitutional" right, which is why you never rise above sourceless assertion.
My source, which you refuse to recognize, is the 9th amendment, which says that such rights need not be enumerated. Read it roscoe.
More penumbra "reasoning" and question begging. Find even one authority or court decision holding that illicit drugs are a Constitutional "right" protected by the Ninth Amendment.
Just one.
What a stretch!
Minors have all rights we have. They are too young to exercise them so they are held in proxy and exercised by their parents.
They can enter into contracts legally and a bunch of other stuff like that.
The fact that a minor cannot enter into a contract is because he lacks capacity. If the minor's parent exercises the right to contract on the minor's behalf, a minor can enter into a contract. This is how minors marry and enter the military.
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