"There was a tragedy in Scott County last week. A young man's future was ruined, and the events that took place will likely haunt him for the rest of his life.
Unless you've been on vacation, you've probably already heard that a superstar athlete on the Scott County basketball team was arrested on felony drug charges, which could result in him going to prison for as long as 10 years. [Georgetown News]
That's awful. But what does this have to do with random drug testing?
...Whether we realize it or not, the real tragedy is this young man wasn't caught sooner, through a less punitive program intended to help youthful offenders, not send them to prison. The greater tragedy, to my way of thinking, is that we, as a community and a school system, haven't seen fit to acknowledge reality and implement a random drug testing program in our high school, and perhaps our middle schools.
So what exactly did this young man do that could get him locked away for 10 years? He was arrested for 1.6 grams of crack on school grounds. Crack/powder sentencing disparity + school zone = 10 years for a one-day supply of drugs.
By conceding that this young man's life has been ruined, the Drug Czar does far more to indict our brutally unfair sentencing laws than to promote random drug testing. He is literally telling us that we should let him collect urine from our children, otherwise his drug soldiers will put them in jail for a decade.
And if that doesn't make your head spin, consider that cocaine leaves your system in 1-2 days and will rarely come up in a drug screen anyway. You can smoke crack all night on Friday and pass a drug test on Monday, so none of this whole insane conversation about saving people from crack laws with drug testing even makes sense to begin with.
Pee for your" freedom is not free".
Johnny Pee's blog states that testing is now taking place in over 1000 schools in the USA.That would mean that millions of young students are subjected to this humiliating search of their body fluids. Mr. Pee's blog also states that the cost for this program would be "somewhere between $10 and $50 each. If the 1000 schools presently given over to this invasion enroll 1000 students each, that would mean that the program costs about $25 million at this point in time. Big bucks for the testing industry. Of course will they test each and every student? I'm certain they have more in the planning. Pee for your education. Pee for your job. What next? Pee for your mortgage? Your drivers license? And what can be said about the observer of the given test? Maybe that said person would be just a toe tap away from some big problems. This whole URINENATION thing really piss'es me off.
testing
The problem I have with the testing is that it can be flawed. Nothing is 100% (as witnessed by the innocent people sent to jail) If drug testing cannot be 100% correct, why would we use it. Is it worth throwing away those kids lives, that get false positives? Not in my world. We all have value! Destroying ANY PART of our community, with false accusations, is abominable! Anyway, the kids can get drugs easier than they can get alcohol and cigarettes!! Does that tell us something? I, happen to, think so. Dealers don't card!
And why in the heck should the school ground drug laws, that add years of punishment onto the regular drug sentences, apply to kids! The kids are required to be there, by law. Was this law not made to encourage drug dealers to keep their distance from schools (drug free zones! HA!)?
our "goverment"
DO you poeple see this? inspite of masive support to legalize madical marajuana they STILL keep it illegal !!!! We the poeple of the usa no longer have ANY say so on how our country is being run,, How long are we going to just stand by and let these babbeling boobs run our country??if 60% (numbers say a lot more then that)say it should be then it SHOULD be legal
What we have here is the brainwashing of the early 40's on "refer madness" worked to will ,, only shows the power the goverment has over us , myself I refuse to vote for ANY of the canadates ,, they ALL say what you want to hear to get in office , then its "oh I didn't say that , I said this" they all lie to get into office
The real drug
The people responsible for these laws are under the influence of the real drug which is now and always has been power. They can rationalize this hypocracy because they are ignorant of the fact that all of the worst crimes that have ever taken place on this planet happened because of people who were under the influence of a perverted sense of power usually having something to do with one of the many false religions. Considering the fact that this country was established on lies, genocide and massive self deception and that we somehow think that the rest of the world is blind and insanely ignorant to not comprehend that we are a third rate empire whose goal is to establish an orwellian totalitarian state while hiding behind a facade of democracy.
power
I will try to quote one of Lincoln's statements, so bear with me. It will be parapharased. "Adversity can tell you a lot about a man's character. But, if you really want to know the true character of a man, give him POWER"!
There might be one candidate out there, that has had the power of life and death in his hands, for years. You might consider the man by looking into his speeches on "the failed drug war" . You, might, take a close look at Dr. Ron Paul's other ideas, as well.
Crack is popular BECAUSE of drug testing
When I lived in Greenville, North Carolina, Marines up from Camp Lejeune were always asking where could they find crack. Why? Because it didn't show up on drug tests.
What reality?
What reality is he proposing we face? That people are going to do drugs no matter what laws or tests we implement?
Do you think that High School drug dealers are going to start selling fixes of detox pills along with someone's bag, in case there is a random test day at school? Conspiracy to prevent suspension?
Vote Ron Paul. end the
Vote Ron Paul. end the insane fight against you.. i mean, drugs
Drug testing
While driving in Ohio, I was stopped by a cowboy cop for speeding. Unfortunately, he also tried to pin a DWI rap on me. He called for a cop to administer a breath test. While waiting, he tried to coerce me into admitting that I was drunk. He told me that it would go easier on me if I co-operated. He watched too many cop shows on TV. A breath test indicated that I had no alcohol in my system. That wasn't the end of it. The cowboy cop arrested me for driving while impaired. THis meant that I had to go to headquarters and submit to a urine test. He also conviscated my drivers licence, even though I wasn't convicted of anything. Three months later I got word that the driving while impaired charges were dropped. Unfortunately, the cowboy cop is still patrolling. How many people he coerced into admitting that they were driving under drug or alcohol influence is unknown. He should have his badge taken away from him. The cop used drug testing on innocent people to move up in the ranks. Let's end that.
liberty
I Brian Frost now refuse any drug test no matter the consequence. Since puberty I've realized the benefits of reefers, putting up with the ignorance and blind ambition of the government. To keep myself from being a lifelong criminal i have removed myself from near the top to as far as rock bottom as i can allow. The only reason is to keep from being caught. Innocent untill proven guilty, tell me where and maybe i'll try to move there because it shurely isn't ohio and from what i hear it isn't antwhere on the current globe!
Reggie Its unconstitutional
n 2005, in a vote of 6-3 (ironically Thomas joining the dissent), the court held that the Congressional ban on homegrown marijuana was authorized by the Constitution because if people could grow their own, the price of black market weed would lower, and increase the likelihood that others could buy marijuana. (Note the parallel, as prostitution is banned, consensual, non-commercial sex can be criminalized, because the more often that people have sex for free - especially if they are married, the lower the price that prostitutes will charge).
But nowhere in these cases did the courts start with the question demanded by Alexander Hamilton ,does the Constitution explicitly authorize the government authorized to deny said individual activity?" If we pose the questions this way, the answer is obvious - Congress cannot authorize and the executive cannot enforce bans on marijuana use, especially when used as a medicinal aid to improve one's life. What is the purpose of government, but to improve the quality of our lives? Thus Pregerson's determination that nothing allows the court to enjoin the feds from harassing and arresting people like Raich is WRONG. Courts can always declare laws and or their enforcement as unconstitutional and issue a cease and desist order. What he is really saying is that he does not want to do so. After all, it is hard to advance in government if you are not a kiss up, just ask former federal prosecutor Carol Lam or Alberto Gonzalez.
Karl Marx (a materialist) declared that he took the ideas of Hegel (the idealist) and turned them right side-up. Marx believed that one's material existence informs our ideas about right and wrong, thoughts on physics, religion, the value of labor and so forth. When we look at the state of American jurisprudence, for nearly 200 years, the legal community has ignored the material reality of the Constitution and the Federalist papers, but instead pushed false ideals. We must retrain law students, professors, lawyers and judges to read the Constitution right side up and acknowledge that our government is supposed to be that of a sovereign people, coupled with a government of express and limited powers. In application, this means that there is no grant for the government to punish people like Angel Raich - they cannot take her stash, arrest her, issue fines or keep her in prison. It even means that all laws banning adults from possessing or growing marijuana are unconstitutional as well.
The powers of govt. ,under our system , are nowhere absolute. They are but grants of authority from the people ...The fundamental rights of the people are inherent and have not been yielded to governmental control ..Constitutional powers can never transcend constitutional rights . The police power is subject to the limitations of the constitutions Spann vs. City of Dallas 235 S.W. 513,515
"[An] act of the Congress of the United States... which assumes powers... not delegated by the Constitution, is not law, but is altogether void and of no force." --Thomas Jefferson: Draft Kentucky Resolutions, 1798. ME 17:383
When our Constitution was first established, it was assumed that the description of specific powers granted to the government would leave no doubt as to what the government could and could not do, and that the absence of powers over the rights of the people would leave those rights protected. But Jefferson and others were wary of leaving such important matters up to inference. They insisted on a Bill of Rights that would state in unmistakable terms those rights of the people that must be left inviolate.
"[If] it [were] assumed that the general government has a right to exercise all powers which may be for the 'general welfare,' that [would include] all the legitimate powers of government, since no government has a legitimate right to do what is not for the welfare of the governed." --Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1792. ME 8:397
I sometimes wonder...
If the current regime aren't actually heroic patriots? Maybe they're secretely trying to see how many rights they will be allowed to steal from Americans before we wake up and realize that we can no longer bear another infringement on our rights! Maybe they're secretely trying to push us to actually take responsibility for and value our freedom!
Seriously, though, I doubt it. People like Walters and Bush are addicted to POWER, the most nefarious of ALL drugs...
The co-dependent world.
Co-dependents are often more concerned with another's drug use than the user is.
Since 1966 I have been hearing and reading about how drugs destroy people's lives. Many examples are given; poor performance in school, constant tardiness or leaving work early, relationship trouble, and declining health, to name a few. In other words, I was, and remain, convinced that drug problems are self-evident.
As a Substance Abuse Counselor, I know that no one will have a successful treatment outcome if they perceive their drug use as causing no problems. Why should they quit? Anyone who has watched one of the televised intervention programs has seen that the use of a drug is not at issue; it is the drug-related behavior that is the focus. For instance, Daddy doesn't deny that he drank, the denial is in what happened when Daddy drank. This, the Johnson Method for Family Intervention, is one of the cornerstones of my field.
If I am frequently late for work, will my clean urine keep me from being fired? If you test my urine and find that I have used a drug, what problem is revealed? Would you fire an employee who gets drunk every day after work, even though their job performance is excellent?
If my employer is truly concerned about my performance being effected by my after-work activities, it would serve more good to take a look in my refrigerator than in my urine.
The US drug czars routinely turn any discussion of medicinal cannabis into a school issue. Califano frequently said, "Kids who smoke marijuana spend much of their school day staring out the window." (Notice how he doesn't mention the kids' GPAs.) To which I respond, "Smart kids, who are often bored in school, are more likely to smoke marijuana".
How often have we heard that a professional athlete has failed a drug test for cannabis? The very fact that they are high achievers (no pun intended) undermines the argument that cannabis hinders performance across the board. Indeed, US Presidents have smoked cannabis. Clinton did not tell us that his classmates, (the ones who did inhale), failed law school and became cocaine addicts. Our Pres. Elect seems to have done pretty good for himself in spite of his having inhaled ("That was the whole purpose in smoking.") Even GW Bush, well....
I am not surprised when my clients tell me that their drug addiction has cost them far more than they could afford, diverted their attention from important issues, and diminished their individual freedom. Yet I am dumbfounded when I think of how the Drug War costs US taxpayers more than we can afford, distracts us from more important concerns, and diminishes our civil rights. In either case, an intervention is necessary to stop this untoward behavior.
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