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From andrey@cs.arizona.edu Tue Dec 18 22:05:08 1990
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From: andrey@cs.arizona.edu (Andrey Yeatts)
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Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs,alt.drugs
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Subject: Editorial in the Arizona Daily Star
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Date: 17 Dec 90 00:01:14 GMT
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Someone asked about what the jackbooter's letter that I quoted early
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was in reference to. It was an excellent editorial in Tucson's Arizona
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Daily Star of Nov. 28, and referred to a Gallup poll with particularly
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chilling results:
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Rights? What Rights?
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How the Constitution lost the War on Drugs
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Ask Americans what makes them so special and most will talk about liberty,
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freedom and a lot Bill of Rights stuff.
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Ask Arizonans to hand over one of those rights in the name of the War on
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Drugs, and most will say, "sure."
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A recent poll of Arizona employees found 95 percent favor some sort of
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workplace drug testing. Fifty-six percent support random drug testing of all
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employees, whether there was cause to suspect a problem or not.
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So much for the Fourth Amendment's guarantee against unreasonable searches
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and seizures. So much for the "right of the people to be secure in their
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persons."
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So much for common sense.
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Drug testing is a simplistic non-solution. It ignores the causes of illegal
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drug use. It treats a freedom-loving people like chattle. It is often
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inaccurate. It is an invasion of privacy.
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And it magnifies the problem all out of proportion. In 1985, say researchers
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at the University of California at San Francisco, alcohol abuse accounted for
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$27.4 billion in lost productivity; drug use accounted for $6 billion.
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In 1989, the National Institute on Drug Abuse reported that drug abuse had
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been declining for 10 years, most dramatically in the last five years. Severe
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problems do exist, especialy among unemployed, disenfranchised Americans who
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seek escape from their miserable lives in addiction. But these people are not
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the target of the frenzy to install an Office of Drug Testing in every
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workplace.
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Drug abuse on the job is a problem, and, depending on the type of job, it
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can be dangerous. But when a freedom-loving nation begins to mindlessly
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acquiesce to an erosion of its freedoms, that's a bigger problem.
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More and more private businesses are requiring drug tests. They are spurred
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on by the self-serving interests of those who make money selling drug tests.
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Together they, and the federal Captains of the Drug War, are whipping up the
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populace: Give us your privacy and we'll solve the drug problem.
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Private businesses may be within their legal rights to demand drug tests.
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But should Americans be bleating approval of this invasive approach? Shouldn't
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they be demanding better answers?
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They should be, but they aren't. The recent Gallup poll of 500 Arizona
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workers was comissioned by the Washington-based Institute for a Drug Free
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Workplace. The institute, representing businesses, is conducting 12 such polls
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around the nation. It won't be surprising if all show similar results. Previous
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polls have indicated support nationally for random drug testing.
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America says it's OK to strip away a few rights in the name of War on Drugs.
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Which suggests the freedom Americans love the most may be the freedom from
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thinking.
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-------
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Phew! and there you have it folks. We have a big job ahead of us...
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andrey
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X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X
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Another file downloaded from: The NIRVANAnet(tm) Seven
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& the Temple of the Screaming Electron Taipan Enigma 510/935-5845
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Burn This Flag Zardoz 408/363-9766
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realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510/527-1662
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Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 801/278-2699
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The New Dork Sublime Biffnix 415/864-DORK
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The Shrine Rif Raf 206/794-6674
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Planet Mirth Simon Jester 510/786-6560
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"Raw Data for Raw Nerves"
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X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X
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