Letter: Chances Of False Positive Too High
Marian Pettibone
August 31, 2009
Reno Gazette-Journal (NV)
My applause to the enlightened Galena High School parents who voted against mandatory random drug testing.
The legal issues here, although disturbing, are not my area of expertise and I'll refrain from comment. As an analytical chemist whose career was largely devoted to drug analysis, I do feel qualified to make the following comments:
Drug testing is not something that should be placed in the hands of bureaucratic amateurs. All screening tests can produce false positives and, depending on the manufacturer, some more than others. Rather than counseling, a positive result for a screening test requires a more rigorous confirmatory test, usually GCMS. Additionally, there are tests to confirm the integrity of the sample to check for adulteration, dilution for example.
I seriously doubt that all of this, if done right, can be achieved for $40. For such testing to hold up, it should be performed in an accredited laboratory where control results are included. The possibility that even one student could have a young life upended with a false positive result is enough for me as a Galena parent to vote no. |
