The U.S. War on Drugs
Pierre du Pont, former Republican governor of Delaware and now a candidate for the Republican nomination for President, has certainly come up with a winning idea! He wants every American teen-ager to hand over a sample of his or her urine to be used to test for drugs. The test would be mandatory, he says, and non-complying school districts would lose federal financial aid. At long last we can get inside the American public! A life-term government data bank could be established, beginning with the results of this initial scrutiny.
A proposal as sensational as Du Pont’s is sure to be picked up by candidates of both parties, so even if Du Pont doesn’t make it into the White House his mandatory drug testing of teen-agers surely will. We can look forward to implementation after the 1989 inauguration of a new President. With undeliberate speed it could be in place in time for the Bicentennial celebration of the Bill of Rights in 1991.
JOYCE APPLEBY
Los Angeles
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