Random Drug Testing

The majority of Marylanders support mandatory random drug testing of high school students, according to a University of Maryland Research Center poll.Of 1,002 people surveyed, 76 percent said all high school athletes should be tested for drugs, and 61 percent said all students should be tested. The poll was conducted between Oct. 30 and Dec. 31.No schools in Maryland conduct random drug testing. The Supreme Court decided in June that schools can randomly test student athletes, but the constitutionality of randomly testing all students is unclear.

WASHINGTON -- The Transportation Department is lowering the required random drug testing rate from 50 percent to 25 percent of employees in qualifying transportation industries.The Transportation Department currently requires transportation employers to randomly test 50 percent of employees in safety-sensitive positions.Reducing that number to 25 percent will save employers as much as 40 percent of the cost of random testing, Transportation Secretary Federico Pena said last week.Jim Landry, president of the Air Transport Association, said the industry is pleased by the Transportation Department's response to its request to lower the random drug-testing rate for airline employees.

ANNAPOLIS -- Any day now, what has been a normal bodily function for state employees all their lives may start to determine their livelihoods. Drug testing by urine sample will begin for the first of 13,000 state workers in so-called "sensitive" positions.State officials say they don't want to tip off anyone, and won't disclose when the random tests will begin. But Catherine K. Austin, assistant secretary of personnel, says the program is in place and ready to go.Already, $400,000 has been set aside in the state's current budget to finance the testing of some 9,000 state employees, including prison guards, bus drivers, narcotics law enforcement officers and health-care providers.

While I agree with Michael D. Ullman's position that long-term solutions to homelessness should focus on permanent housing, prevention and rapid re-housing models ("Not a home, not a help," June 29), his suggestion that "doubling up" with friends and family is a solution to homelessness is completely off base. People and families who "double" or "triple up" with friends and family are not solving the problem of their own homelessness. They are still homeless, since they lack a home of their own to provide stability, privacy and security.

The Baltimore County Police Department became yesterday the latest law enforcement agency in the metropolitan area to announce random drug testing of its police officers.The program, scheduled to begin in about two months for the department's 1,581 officers and 35 civilian employees, is intended to provide accountability to the public, according to Sgt. Stephen R. Doarnberger, a department spokesman."People need to know that our officers are not a part" of the drug problem, he said.The testing program was put together after meetings of police officials, civilian employee representatives and officials of the Fraternal Order of Police.

Here is how members of Maryland's delegation on Capitol Hill were recorded on important roll-call votes last week:YES N: NO X: NOT VOTINGHOUSE: TO REJECT CUTBy a 295-122 vote, the House refused to trim about $1.2 billion from the fiscal 1992 appropriations bill for the departments of State, Justice and Commerce and related agencies.A yes vote was to curb the cost of the bill by $1.2 billion.%Y N X Member Y N X Member* * Bentley, Helen Delich, R-2nd* N * Byron, Beverly B., D-6th* N * Cardin, Benjamin L., D-3rdY * * Gilchrest, Wayne T., R-1st* N * Hoyer, Steny H. D-5th* N * McMillen, Tom, D-4th* N * Mfume, Kweisi, D-7th* N * Morella, Constance A., R-8thHOUSE: TO SAVE DISPUTED PROJECTSBy a 267-151 vote, the House refused to cut $936,000 for two fish research projects funded by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

About three weeks ago, county police Officer Roger Crawford was patrolling in Odenton when he saw a youth coming out of a liquor store with a keg of beer.The officer stopped the car after it made an illegal U-turn on Route 175. The driver admitted to being under 21, surrendered the keg and the bottle of whiskey he was carrying, then led the officer to an Odenton home where a party had been planned. About 25 people were arrested at the house, police said.Maj. William Donoho recounted the incident yesterday at a county seminar on drug and alcohol abuse to highlight the importance of "keeping your eyes and ears open."

Here they come, folks! They've saddled up, mounted their white horses and sallied forth to do battle with the unrighteous, unbelieving horde of infidels now running amok through society.Who are "they"? Why, the Defend the Poor Cavalry, of course. Mind you, most cavalry members are not poor and have never been poor, but they're sure they can tell the rest of us exactly what the poor need.What poor welfare recipients don't need, the cavalry assures us, is drug testing. In early December, members of the state legislature's Joint Committee on Welfare Reform announced they will try to pass a law requiring mandatory drug testing for welfare recipients.

The biggest question about Maryland's new random drug testing policy is, in three words: Is it constitutional? Requiring employees arbitrarily to submit urine samples is an issue the Supreme Court has not yet decided. But when the state embarks on testing this month, the bottom line will be: Will it work? And the answer is, that depends.In part it depends on whether people will fully participate. Under the new policy, 13,000 state employees who hold safety-related jobs will be subject to the test.

Let elders now aid younger generationsWe, the people who have outlived our three score and 10 biblical allowance, are credited with successfully protecting our rights by voting in large numbers and lobbying more than most social groups. We have also survived the wars and pestilence of a tragic century: the 1919 flu epidemic and the polio menace, two world wars, the Great Depression and more.We have survived, and before we bow out it is befitting that we make a final contribution toward protecting the younger generations who have to cope with the world we, after all, are responsible for, and which we have perhaps left in even worse shape than we found it. After the failure of the League of Nations, the United Nations was created.