General Atomics vice chairman and Hudson Institute trustee Linden Blue is out with an op-ed piece in the San Francisco Examiner — cowritten with Peter Bensinger, Drug Enforcement Administration administrator during the Ford, Carter and Reagan years — touting a "greater emphasis on rehabilitation" in the nation's war on drugs.
But there's a big stick to go along with the carrot: regular testing of high school students' hair samples for banned substances, with penalties for failure to include jail time and drivers license revocations.
And forget about medical marijuana:
"States that have implemented medical marijuana have three times higher drugged-driver fatalities than states that have no medical marijuana laws," the pair says.
On the other hand, they go on to argue, extensive drug testing has shown proven results. "High schools that have implemented drug testing have better attendance, higher grade scores and fewer disciplinary problems.
"In Chicago, St. Patrick’s High School uses random testing. Hair tests can detect drug use back 90 days.
"St. Patrick’s attendance, graduation and college admission rates are higher and disciplinary incidents lower."
"If kids know there is about a 99 percent chance they will lose, they won’t take the risk — especially on things that are important to them like a driver’s license or getting a job."
"We need to make this work for our kids and for Latin Americans, where the U.S.’s drug appetite has stimulated international cartels and contributed to thousands of deaths."
The full piece is here:
Getting Smart is how to deal with illicit drugs
La Jollan Blue has had a lucrative history with the nation's war against drugs.
Last year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection took delivery of the first of many General Atomics-made Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, which are being used by the feds to monitor the border and spy on Mexican drug traffickers over that country's air space:
U.S. flies Predator drones over Mexico to spy on drug traffickers
General Atomics vice chairman and Hudson Institute trustee Linden Blue is out with an op-ed piece in the San Francisco Examiner — cowritten with Peter Bensinger, Drug Enforcement Administration administrator during the Ford, Carter and Reagan years — touting a "greater emphasis on rehabilitation" in the nation's war on drugs.
But there's a big stick to go along with the carrot: regular testing of high school students' hair samples for banned substances, with penalties for failure to include jail time and drivers license revocations.
And forget about medical marijuana:
"States that have implemented medical marijuana have three times higher drugged-driver fatalities than states that have no medical marijuana laws," the pair says.
On the other hand, they go on to argue, extensive drug testing has shown proven results. "High schools that have implemented drug testing have better attendance, higher grade scores and fewer disciplinary problems.
"In Chicago, St. Patrick’s High School uses random testing. Hair tests can detect drug use back 90 days.
"St. Patrick’s attendance, graduation and college admission rates are higher and disciplinary incidents lower."
"If kids know there is about a 99 percent chance they will lose, they won’t take the risk — especially on things that are important to them like a driver’s license or getting a job."
"We need to make this work for our kids and for Latin Americans, where the U.S.’s drug appetite has stimulated international cartels and contributed to thousands of deaths."
The full piece is here:
Getting Smart is how to deal with illicit drugs
La Jollan Blue has had a lucrative history with the nation's war against drugs.
Last year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection took delivery of the first of many General Atomics-made Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, which are being used by the feds to monitor the border and spy on Mexican drug traffickers over that country's air space:
U.S. flies Predator drones over Mexico to spy on drug traffickers