davidkin hollywood

Saturday, June 29, 2002

Drug testing students

U.S. Supreme Court judge Clarence Thomas in the majority opinion in the Board of Education vs. Earls case:
This policy reasonably serves the School District's important interest in detecting and preventing drug use among its students.
It seems to me that the School District's important interest should be the education of its students. What Thomas describes is parental responsibility. I was one of the top athletes in my high school, I sang in the chamber choir, I was vice president of the French club, edited a literary magazine, took all the honors classes I could, and ended up going to a school that most consider fairly respectable. I also would have failed a piss-in-the-cup test. Also, I certainly wasn't alone. The absurdity of this ruling, the school policy it upholds, and much of drug policy in general is that it presupposes there is one road to success and that "drugs" are nowhere to be found on it. Drugs are all around us... some use them to better themselves, others for detrimental escapes. We're sold them in the back of magazines, on billboards, on the sides of busses, and on television. Our current president used drugs that are illegal and had serious problems with drugs that are completely legal. There is no proven formula that says "drugs=failure". Just as anything else, it depends on the individual and his peers. I'm not about to suggest that use of any recreational drug is conducive to a healthy lifestyle, but — a healthy lifestyle can accomodate moderate use of drugs. Millions of alcohol drinkers and marijuana smokers can attest to this. This is not the same as saying that all (or even a majority) drug users lead healthy lives.
comment 12:14:32 AM