Legalization is answer, not testing

When I was in high school I learned that alcohol prohibition failed because people still wanted to consume alcohol even though it was dangerous and illegal. Illicit drugs are the same way today. Yes, most of them are dangerous, but that is the very reason to make them legal and take their production, distribution and consumption out of the illegal underground market and regulate them like we do with alcohol, tobacco and prescription drugs.

When drugs are illegal, dealers don’t care how old anyone is who is buying drugs from them, so young people have easier access to these substances than they do the ones where they need to prove their age in order to buy certain products. Retailers risk losing their licenses and incarceration if they are caught selling to underage patrons.

Drug testing students at Lake Zurich High School isn’t going to stop drug use or abuse, but it will erode trust is school officials and the ingenuity of students will lead them to more dangerous substances that are not tested for or leave the bloodstream quicker, like inhalants, alcohol and prescription narcotics.

Let parents do the parenting, and the school should return to focusing on educating students, perhaps with some honesty about how our drug laws were created, and how different drugs have different effects and risks.

Dan Linn

Chicago