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From: ks@svo.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: Drug Testing
Message-ID: <3800003@svo.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 19-Mar-86 13:15:00 EST
Article-I.D.: svo.3800003
Posted: Wed Mar 19 13:15:00 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 22-Mar-86 14:20:08 EST
References: <1837@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Lines: 63
Nf-ID: #R:brl-smoke.ARPA:1837:svo.UUCP:3800003:000:3148
Nf-From: svo.UUCP!ks    Mar 19 12:15:00 1986


In article <143@hhb.UUCP> bcb@hhb.UUCP (Bob BField) writes:

>Another observation:  Drug testing punishes drug users, not pushers.  People
>who blow a joint, snort some lines, drop a pill, or down a shot every now
>and then do not damage our social fabric.  People who abuse grass, cocaine,
>speed, alcohol to the point that it affects the way they function at work,
>do not damage our social fabric either.  They are the rent in our social
>fabric that we wish to mend.  Punishing severe drug abusers pushes them to
>more extensive abuse.  They have more to escape from.
>
>We have a serious drug problem in America.  Impoverished teenagers turn to
>drugs to escape their miserable lives.  

What a bunch of crap.  I don't think that I've seen this much BAD LOGIC in
a long time.

Users DO damage our 'social fabric.'  [I'm still awed that you posted something
so absolutely brainless; let me take a breath.]  I believe that there are
two communities of interest that comprise the 'drug problem.'  The first COI
is the 'user,' who buys the end-product, along with low-end dealers and low-
end (regional-local) distributors.  The second COI is the 'producer,'
'shipper,' and 'financier' of (normally unprocessed) product and of related
operations.

The enforcement agencies have concentrated their efforts at the second COI,
while normally relegating the first COI to local, county, and state officials.
But they neglected to see that it is the first COI that creates the second.
I sure as hell hope that the executive branch takes up the recommendations
of the Bush report and that they start getting at the MARKET.

It is the user of drugs whose life is ruined and changed forever.  A few
years ago when I worked as a paramedic, I spent some of my time working in
a drug rehabilitation center--where all the 'rent' in our 'social fabric'
go, along with the 'impovrished teenagers' who try to 'escape their
miserable lives.'

Let me tell you one thing right now!  Those patients with whom I worked were
s c r e w e d   u p   on drugs.  Many had been addicted to narcotics for
years, but insisted that they could 'get off at any time.'  In the meanwhile,
they were approaching toxicity levels of OTC and illegal substances to
either control side-effects or to get the 'high' they once got.

Most of these people are welfare-benefit receipients; guess where their
check goes.  They are, in the vast majority, not producers in our society.
Their function becomes solely to 'feel good about themselves,' and then nothing
else matters.  More and more of our society is becoming non-productive because
of non-work-related factors such as substance and alcohol abuse.

I went to a racially integrated high school in one of the poorest sections
of my town.  Yet, I know of very 'impovrished teenagers' who were able to
do worthwhile things--some even finished college and are continuing their
formal education.  But they had the same handicap of being poor as their
peers, some of whom are, undoubtedly, living in the drug rehab center where
I worked.

Just say "no."

		Kurt F. Sauer
		Tulsa, Oklahoma

Internet:	ks@a.cs.okstate.EDU
UUCP:		ks@svo.UUCP