It seemed to me that one of the strongest arguments FOR drug testing was that it gave kids a ready excuse if they didn't want to be pressured by their peers to take drugs. "I'd be caught and wouldn't be able to be in band..." or something.

What's the counter argument that this could be effective against peer pressure and is worth a try?

A few years ago, my then high-school aged son who was a skilled musician with good grades who was caught on a random dog search of the parking lot with 'scraps' of marijuana in his car. The school insisted on testing so that he could avoid suspension. We agreed (in retrospect we were wrong)and he tested positive. We had to fight to keep him in school and he was suspended from the band. The effects on our son were profound and four years later we are still dealing with the consequences.

Our son is a good person, he does well with his job, is a talented musician and does no harm to anyone. Drug testing in school is NOT private. All the students know when you have been caught and I believe that it ruins more young lives than the actual marijuana use ever has.

One of many problems with drug testing, besides infringing on your rightful privacy as an American, is that they don't prove you use drugs while on the job or at school. I know many users of marijuana who have achieved Phd's, who are competent doctors, teachers, and other respected participants in society. Yet if they have smoked one joint in the past 2-4 weeks, it WILL show up in a urinalysis. Similarily, when tests are given after accidents in a workplace they might show a positive of marijuana but that only means they smoked during the past 2-4 weeks. It doesn't prove that you have a bad employee or that marijuana caused an accident. I encourage you to stand up for your right to privacy and against the fallacy of drug testing.

All, The discussion is so wide of the mark. Alcohol is by far the most dangerous drug in america. This is backed up by statistics. YetI can drink 2 cases of beer a day and pass all the drug tests. Why? Federal, state and local governments make billions of dollars off the sale of alcohol. Also, when you pee in a cup they do not test only for illegal drugs. They test your liver function, kidney function etc. Then they sell that info to the insurance companies who can deny you coverage based on those tests. It's all about the money, not the drugs.

The only reason Ethan doesn't believe in drug testing is because he is an avid drug user.

Alcohol is by far the most dangerous drug available in society today. Yet we learned from prohibition the folly of making it illegal. When are we going to apply this lesson to other drugs and let citizens be responsible for their own bodies and actions?

Drug testing accomplishes what? Even after someone is identified, no one can force that person to quit. Does testing prevent accidents, such as auto or airplane? No. Does it prevent athletes from taking drugs? Apparently not.

Testing not only violates our civil rights, but also promotes yet another aspect of "big brother."

I DO NOT believe children in school should be tested WITHOUT the parent's permission. If a parent refuses to allow their child to be tested, they (the child) should NOT be kept from joining sports or other activities.

Just a few questions:

Should voters be drug tested, and barred from voting if they fail?

Should failing a drug test be used as prima facie evidence that leads to a felony conviction?

Should we build more prisons to house the millions that will fail drug tests?

Should repeat offenders be sentenced to life in prison without parole or executed?

Should we create a new special police force that seeks out drug users, and vigorously enforces drug laws?

Why should we stop with drugs? Why not other areas where the "common sensibility" is offended?

Both your hosts to the discussion about drug testing lied to the audience when they agreed that there was a concerted effort to educate children about drug problems. That's why I wrote The Original Drug Manual for Kids - for families that care about real drug-related problems. I did an internet search for comprehensive curriculum for drug abuse, addiction and dependency and got ZERO hits. I contacted several organizations that dealt with the end results of alcoholism and drug abuse inquiring as to a curriculum for my school and got zero results. I specified that I wanted a curriculum that dealt with all kinds of drugs, legal, illegal, and medicinal [like drug Rush is recovering from] and dealt with abuse, addiction, and dependency and I was told more than once it didn't exist.

So I wrote a curriculum that can be found at http://www.geocities.com/rimchamp77/odm4k.html . The lexionary states that the obvious truths that teens already know: the War on Drugs is an abusive and immoral policy, that those who sell drugs of all kinds deliberately mislead people, that drug war advocates like the anti-drug [who refuse to face me in formal debate btw] also deliberately mislead people, and that authority figures frequently act in an abusive manner towards kids. I also tell them that the War on Drugs has absolutely no basis in truth and that no advocate can begin to make a case for the policy - without lying.

I offer the kids strategies for finding reliable information about drugs, give some basics on how they work and how they can be taken, and the limitations for drug use of any kind [only for short-term and only as needed - if you use them when you don't need them they lose their effectiveness]. I also advise them on strategies to minimize abuse and stress in their live and how to lead a more productive and healthy lifestyle. It is heavily focused on self-discipline and 'doing the right thing' or righteousness.

The manual has a launchpad section for every major section of text that gives kids activities to do or questions to answer to stimulate thinking and test out what is said in manual - or even to challenge what is stated in manual. It is the ideal springboard for parents to discuss sensitive issues like drug use, sex, career, workplace, and family relationships. And since the manual is about the adult world of drugs - into which the kids are emerging - it is not necessarily a forum for adults to lecture children since their drug dependencies and abusive behaviors will be open for discussion as much as that of their children.

A lot of people can state that much of the text is a 'matter of opinion' but in my opinion you can't base a 'difference of opinion' on lies. I've recently made an inquiry about the DEA's website where I ask which legal drugs were grandfathered into the Controlled Substances Act - or which legal drugs were actually tested and if the DEA made even a token attempt to allow peer review for the testing that is implied in the Controlled Substances Act on their website. I don't expect an answer because I know for a fact that the War on Drugs can't stand up to the most minimal of scientific scrutiny.

You can tell your 'drug test everyone' host that he is more than welcome to visit Benton County Oregon to defend the War on Drugs. Before he accepts the challenge I would like him to give one good reason for continuing this absurd policy...... without lying or deliberately misleading onlookers.

BTW, any drug abuse and dependency curriculum would have to tell students about the limitations of drug use and the problems with over reliance and dependency - the main one being not taking other measures to deal with the problem. Then you tell them that people will lie and mislead them to get them to buy - or not buy - certain drugs. Since the bread and butter of drug company profits is promoting dependency there is no interest in putting such a curriculum into our schools.

Whether rich or poor, you are stupid to take drugs. Growing up in this modern age, we teens know more about these things, because we are exposed to them more. We aren't stupid in that we don't know better than to smoke pot. We are stupid in that we did it anyway and since we knew what could happen and ignored that, we need the testing to catch us. Extra curricular activities help keep teens away from drugs because most of them benefit us only without the drugs. If we get caught, we're out. This is because of testing. Without it, how do dumb ppl get caught and punished?

How can you argue your point with Dr. Dupont when he is giving false stats to back his argument (ie THC only stays in your system for 1-3 days).

The problem is that the public is inundated with paid ads promoting drug dependency by the same media that boasts about its "anti-drug messages". How can a media outlet seriously claim to be against drugs - while taking millions of dollars promoting drug dependency? Over 82% of drug abuse and dependency problems have NOTHING to do with alcohol or other illegal drugs used recreationally. Most kids will outgrow "experimentation" with illegal drugs only to become dependent on medications in their senior years.

Illegal drugs in America are not always what they seem to be, street drugs are dirty. This is my fundamental problem with drug testing in America. How can a student be sure of what drug they are using without manufacturing their drugs (growing a marijuana plant), or be connected in a circle of drug manufacturers (I believe many would argue this status is one of a drug dealer, and not simply a recreational marijuana user)? The idea that high school kids are buying bags of marijuana and they don’t even know if it is laced with any other chemical agents simply makes me sick. Until America agrees to provide its citizens with “safe marijuana” (pure marijuana not laced with other chemical agents), how can one be surprised that a senior that ONLY THOUGHT they smoked grass (and had no intention of using “harder drugs”) turns up positive for “harder drugs” because they were laced in their marijuana? With America not accepting the fact that marijuana is God’s creation (and plant that can grow naturally in America), I believe America is providing an injustice to its citizens by only allowing non-regulated illegal marijuana that could be laced with anything. A good question to ask if one chooses to use marijuana is, how clean is one’s marijuana and where has it been? In this sense America is forcing its citizens that desire and choose to smoke only “clean” marijuana to grow it themselves and become a “drug manufacturer” under our current laws. I believe, and will argue, that “clean marijuana” is vastly safer for anyone, than marijuana laced with unknown (to the user), “hard” chemical agents. I applaud the Netherlands and its citizens for their fundamental belief that “soft drugs” (marijuana, psycho-active mushrooms and peyote) are a choice to be made by each individual citizen, and they provide their citizens with “clean soft drugs” which are VASTLY SAFER than any “soft drugs” one can find in America, laced with “who knows what.”

How can you hold normal citizens accountable for drug testing when the president of the United States, nor the lawmakers have to. I heard the president used Cocaine in his college years. Why won't he or any of the lawmakers submit to a hair test? The same reasons why they would never create a law forcing them to this testing is the same reason why ALL americans shouldn't be subject to it. It is an obvious travesty on your constitutional privacy.