LTE: Newsweek

[ridgerunner]

This nation's enormous drug and violence problems are a direct result of our government's failure to curb the wide-spread, sustained demand for drugs. America's children get an early introduction to mind-altering, addictive substances. Since drug use by schoolchildren is a major national health crisis, we advocate that Congress soon mandate the legal, effective and popular strategy of random student drug testing. It is a widely used, proven method to deter kids' drug use and to identify—solely for treatment purposes—those currently using dangerous drugs. Such a public-health response to America's meth and other drug problems is warranted by the failure of education, interdiction and punitive criminal-justice strategies to eliminate this national health crisis.

DeForest Rathbone, Chairman,

—Great Falls, Va.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8938143/site/newsweek/

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What a facist idea. Why not drug test all Americans? Hell, who needs the Bill of Rights, we've got to keep people from smoking pot.

I'm sure our members in VA are familiar with these fascists but here is a some info on them:

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National Institute of Citizen Anti-Drug Policy (NICAP)
NICAP is a public policy advocacy organization that began in the early 1980s as Virginia Coalition of Parents (VCP) affiliated with the National Federation of Parents (NFP). It began by successfully petitioning the Virginia legislature for laws to close head shops, raise the drinking age to 21, and enact a state civil forfeiture law. In the mid 1990s it reorganized as NICAP to lead advocacy for federal legislation endorsing student drug testing, which succeeded with enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. NICAP continues today with nation-wide advocacy of state government support and local school adoption of random student drug testing programs.
DeForest Rathbone, Chairman
p)703-759-2215
[e-mail]

http://www.ibhinc.org/resourcesandlinks.html

"Thanks be to almighty God, who has guided us, protected us and comforted us in this effort," says DeForest Rathbone of the Supreme Court hearing, which occurred in March. By "us", Rathbone means his group, the National Institute of Citizen Anti-Drug Policy, and those it is aligned with including the Drug Free America Foundation, Drug Free Kids, and the Alcohol and Drug Testing Industry Association which organized the legal briefs and now have even secured funding to push testing to the front of the Drug War.



Last year, Rathbone and his allies sneaked a clause into President Bush's education bill authorizing the government to pay for testing at public schools. As a result, billions in block grants will soon be available to schools that want to test. According to Julie Underwood, counsel for the National School Boards Association, many of her members are just waiting for the court to give its constitutional green light. Says Rathbone, "People don't realize how far along we are with this thing. It's a done deal."

http://www.sportsafe.com/The%20Supreme%20Court%20Vs%20Teens.htm

DeForest Rathbone speaks... sort of

First there was this bizarre article about how Andrea Barthwell and John Pastuovic (who just happen to represent GW Pharmaceuticals, makers of the liquid version of marijuana called Sativex®) happened to offer their services to promote drug testing in a school in Virginia.

Then Charles Darlington responded in a very well-written letter.

Well, yesterday, the paper printed a letter by... DeForest Rathbone, Chairman, National Institute of Citizen Anti-drug Policy.

Wow -- they brought out the big guns. Except I had never heard of him or of National Institute of Citizen Anti-Drug Policy (would that be NICAP?) So I did a little research. Well, it's definitely not NICAP. Turns out DeForest and his organization have been around for some time (although they're a bit slow in developing their own web site), advocating for DeForest's personal obsession -- having young children pee for them.

Rathbone was involved in the Supreme Court case that allowed additional drug testing in schools. In reference to that hearing, he said, "Thanks be to almighty God, who has guided us, protected us and comforted us in this effort." Apparently God is also in favor of peeing in a cup to prevent people from using one of His plants. Rathbone's group also worked with Mark Souder to sneak a provision into a 700 page education bill that allows block grants for drug testing. As reported by Mark Boal in Rolling Stone Magazine:
It was months before anybody in the drug reform movement noticed it was there. "We snuck it by those druggie liberals!" gloats Rathbone.
"Druggie" appears to be Deforest's favorite word.

So now that we know who he is -- back to the letter in yesterday's paper.

We also agree with Barthwell that smoked pot will never be anything other than another snake-oil medicine to cheat desperate sick people. That is also our rationale for defeating the Illinois bill to virtually legalize smoked pot as medicine, which was proposed by drug legalizers. It is not hypocrisy to support the official evaluation of Sativex by FDA while opposing unapproved smoked pot snake-oil medicine.

It is also a phony claim that Barthwell ducks public debate on so-called "drug law reform." She and I and many other drug prevention activists are more than willing to debate drug legalizers and their legal profession supporters at any time, <...>
So what else have we learned here?
Rathbone also likes to say "snake-oil."
Despite his apparent friendship with Andrea Barthwell, he hasn't discussed debating with her recently. Ever since she got her ass handed to her on the Montel show, she's avoided any kind of debate.
Rathbone has had some run-ins with the "legal profession."
Of course, he never addressed the real issues that Darlington brought up in his letter, but that's par for the course.

But I appreciate his letter. For now I feel like I know one more character in this circus.

http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/2005/06/02.html

Proponents of strict drug laws warn that so-called compassionate use of marijuana is merely a first step toward total legalization. And any easing of a complete ban, they say, would be a disaster for American youths.

"If you allow this for even this compassionate use, it gives the kids the excuse that it is not harmful, that it is medicine," says DeForest Rathbone of the National Institute of Citizen Antidrug Policy, a parents' group in Great Falls, Va. "It is harmful, and we just can't do that as a government policy."

http://www.mpp.org/news/csm032801.html

[Dez]

1. If they drug test students, then

they better drug test our elected representatives! Those assholes pass the law, but they're not tested too! I say drug test shrub every month!

[DrBloodmoney]

2. What is the punishment

for testing positive? More forced rehab... denial of college tuition assistance...

I only hope that the proponents of this ridiculous policy are ecstatic when their little johnny or jilly tests positive and their policy results ruin their academic career.

Facism at it's best. Only in America

[Dark]

3. There's a reason drugs

are such a problem with American teens. There's nothing else to do.

Seeing movies every weekend gets old, and seventeen The only thing that's fun to do is to smoke weed or drink alcohol.

And the whole attitude that these are 'forbidden' just aides their prevalence. Everyone knows that teens want to rebel. Alcohol and weed are just another way to give the finger to parents.