They used to want to watch kids pee in a cup. Now school officials have moved on to voodoo. They want a lock of kids’ hair in order to control them.
High School To Collect Students’ Hair For Mandatory Drug Testing
The school will collect 60 strands of hair from the student and test for several types of drugs, including marijuana and cocaine. If a student comes back with a positive drug test, that student will have 90 days to get drug-free.
Via Glenn Greenwald, who noted:
Training high school students to be meek subjects of authoritarian power: mandatory hair collection for drug tests http://t.co/I8qQorjn
Court says patients can share marijuana
http://tinyurl.com/bzyvgyt
“”Medical marijuana supporters received a key victory Wednesday — and the Michigan Attorney General’s Office suffered a setback — when the state Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that patient-to-patient transfers of the drug are allowed for medical use under state law.
The court said that state-registered patients can legally deliver the drug to one another, as long as they don’t exchange money and they follow other provisions of Michigan’s medical marijuana act — such as staying within the act’s 2.5-ounce limit for anyone possessing the drug.”” ‘snip’
Good news for MI mmj patients and aneeded slap in the face for the state AG.
I am not sure of the cost of the hair burn but I know it is quite a bit more expensive than urine analysis.
I wonder if the funds wasted on this would help with all the other shortages school districts are complaining about,,like teachers pay?
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I think that it would be much more interesting to find out the identities of the vendors which are going to collect the fees for providing the testing service.
Good call.
In fact, I’ll bet you could probably name the people behind the vendors without even trying (Kevin S., General Mcaffrey, etc.). It’s always the same players, with the same drug war all wrapped up in a glittering new name.
All the drug war’s bloody, twisted and pot-holed roads lead back to the same prohibitionists (who are profitting greatly from said prohibition). One day, when the carnage they have caused is assessed properly I hope they will be held accountable.
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Sure I can name the wholesale vendors. But there are hundreds if not thousands of retail vendors and we just haven’t seen widespread use of hair testing by organizations who think testing their minions is a good idea. There must be a reason for that since hair testing will catch people that someone with a specimen cup can’t even dream of nailing.
My money’s on someone in the school administration is getting paid to facilitate this nonsense. That person may have an ownership interest probably through a straw man, or it could be just plain old fashioned kickbacks. Whatever it is this thing is just plain fishy.
One day, we’ll be a nation of mail-order GEDs. Is that what they want? Thank God you got your education and degree(s) BEFORE all this idiocy started. Some of us DO have something to be thankful for.
Rockhurst is a private catholic high school. While wrong-headed this is not a public school. You accept this crap when you decided to pay to send your kids there.
You’re right of course but the linked article wasn’t clear about that. I had to find that out in the comments. Once they privatize all the public schools except a few dumping grounds that won’t be much of a barrier to this crap anymore.
I think there is, and should be a distinction between publicly funded public schools (such as charter schools) that are privately run and private schools that are supported by tuition and donations.
Yep, the parents are footing the bill to have school authorities snoop on their children. I’m sure their kids are going to really appreciate the attention their parents are paying to outsourcing their up-bringing.
I agree. I cant stomach the idea of treating everyone like a criminal. It is a totalitarian mindset. However i believe people have the right to send there kids to get whatever education they want.
Can they use any body hair? Time to open a waxing and laser hair removal salon in Kansas City?
Pete, you’re not far off the mark. Apparently, this particular testing is more reliable when hair-length exceeds 3″.
Brian Bennett called this a long time ago.
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It won’t cut it to just shave their heads. The ones that grow near peoples’ naughty parts or armpits will do the trick just as well. Has anyone tried to shave their entire body? It’s an extended process, particularly for men. Yes I did do that once. It didn’t happen a second time because doing so was a major pain in the ass. The fact that my scalp wouldn’t allow me to have a shiny Kojak head was also a significant contribution to that decision. The students mentioned above should consider waxing (ouch!) or electrolysis instead of shaving.
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Ginger? Witch?? We-we??? I think something has been lost in the translation.
if you like the African beat, Fela Kuti is pretty darn good. And as far as when ganja use took root in Africa… prehistory, of course. Ganja predates Nigeria.
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I admit that I find it amusing just how many people believe that The Beatles and Bob Dylan invented cannabis in 1964. Oh right, don’t let me forget to mention their belief that a chemist employed by Cheech & Chong figured out how to make pot between 20 and 100 more potent in 1981.
No weed was ever more potent than that shit they had in 1937 that turned James Munch into a bat with just two puffs! The sole success story of marijuana prohibition is that it allowed authorities to completely eradicate that particular strain and it hasn’t managed to re-evolve itself since, otherwise there’d be a helluvalotta stoned bats flying around these past 75 years. True fact — it’s the real reason industrial hemp is still banned to this day!
And I don’t care how less potent than today’s weed the academics who never smoked a joint say it is, I would absolutely LOVE me a fat sack of some of the Columbian Gold Bud I smoked all the time in the ’70’s. The buzz was great, and ohhhh, the taste!
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The Cheech & Chong thing is a running joke. In their 3rd movie which was released in 1981, “Nice Dreams” they had a mad scientist working in a camouflaged swimming pool developing super potent reefer which turned people into lizards. The last we heard from Sgt. Stedenko he was fully transmogrified and sitting on the ledge outside his office with a bunch of pigeons turned lizard because he had blown so much smoke out the window previously. Every time I hear a prohibitionist talk about today’s super potent reefer I think of Jimmy (the mad scientist).
The young ‘uns have less area covered by hair…You and me and Nemo? Like shaving gorillas.
Gorillas with copious amounts of nose, ear and “other” hair that didn’t exist when we were younger.
I’d rather have a root canal – at least then they give you the good stuff.
(Speaking personally, of course)
Kansas City, Missouri, isn’t exactly a bastion of freedom. In another part of the state, Jefferson City is proposing a bill in the Missouri House of Ill Repute that would require drug dealers to pay taxes on their drugs, in violation of the 5th Amendment that proscribes self-incrimination. I think Tim Leary won that case in the 70s.
Anyway, by the time the new drug policy is implemented at Rockhurst High School, it’s going to look like it’s been invaded by Coneheads. It’s too bad, really. I think women and girls look better with a full head of hair.
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I think they cured that defect by eliminating any requirement for the person buying the tax stamp to identify himself. Frankly I’m surprised that Missouri isn’t already a drugs tax stamp State.
http://norml.org/legal/tax-stamps
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There’s an ancient platitude that says, “speak of the Devil and in he walks.” I swear I haven’t heard anything about the illegal drugs tax stamp scam for at least 3 years. But yesterday was the proposed Missouri law and today it’s an ancient ruling from the Texas Court of Appeals. It appears that cannabis in Texas is de facto legal as long as you or your lawyer know the right magic words. Too bad that Willie Nelson missed his opportunity.
So – you select your “approved” youth population for obedience, or skillful cheating, and reject anyone who shows rebellion or creative thinking. It’s a recipe for disaster, where all the societal power positions are occupied by those who have already submitted to successive abuses of their personal freedom, and those who dare to exercise their freedom are pushed into the fringes.
No wonder there is such a lack of imagination and creativity in the halls of power. They are selected for obedience and lack of imagination from youth.
In a changing world, this is beyond stupid.
I’m a proud parent of 2 unschoolers, one of which is 19 and spent only 1 day in our education system. The other is about to be 7 he will never spend a day in our public school system and very unlikely a private school. Perhaps a Sudbury school if he would like to attend one at all. I never intend on violating my children’s privacy like that I will be damned if some strangers do. Its safe to say if he did attend school they would not being test him like this or he would be pulled from the school immediately.
both my kids went thru the public school system. But we taught them to read by building a love of reading by reading to them. They were consistently 2 or 3 grades above the standard reading levels.
Elementary and middle schools were a breeze, HS not so much. They were spoiled (used to getting questions answered) and didn’t like being treated like cattle in classrooms with 35 other kids. Son dropped out and ended up in what when I was a kid woulda been considered a Juvie school. But it was a satellite school in a small district started by teachers. Their graduation rate is 20+ points higher than the state avg. Their class sizes were small, the rules strict and the staff outstanding. Son excelled in that school and graduated on time.
Daughter didn’t finish so didn’t graduate but testing wise was one of the brightest kids in the school. But even then her talent was becoming obvious. She can sing, well. She has a husky, smokey quality to her voice and she plays piano. Again, well. But for me, it was her writing… she was 15 when she wrote this short story:
the blue swing…
and now she’s in college, into her second year and maintaining a 4.0 taking almost all academic classes.
A child’s parents’ input matters far more than any school.
Allen – thanks for sharing. My kid was a golden state scholar in 5 subjects, one of only 5 in his 700+ graduating class, and yet he barely graduated with a couple of D’s. Why? Boredom with the busywork and disrespect for what amounted to baby-sitting.
Now he’s in grad school burning it up.
Public education is a mixed bag – aimed at the mythical mean, training citizens for an orderly society. Exceptional students can sometimes find what they want but it seems to me it puts more hurdles in their way than opportunities.
That said, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater – it’s the only public school system that we have, and too many of the Charter schools are like the one in KC – authoritarian boot camps that actively discourage thinking in favor of rote learning and drills. And total disrespect for personal freedom.
Here here. And the folks on this couch care for their children, and value education as a means to ends, as well as for it’s own sake. We have to remember that MANY parents are not that engaged, didn’t get a decent education themselves, and hence may not support their children’s educations. Not every parent can homeschool, and not every parent WILL.
I live in the city of St. Louis and send my kids to a charter school. The regular city schools suck. I would not live in the city if they where not an option.
Also lets remember that this school in KC is not a charter school. It is a private catholic high school.
I guess they are getting the kids ready for the working world of urine tests. This of course will push them into smoking the fake weed. The only way this could ever be rational is if we lived in a world where the dope was legal and then used drug testing to determine if the user is using outside of the approved age requirement. I wonder how many of theses tests are designed to pick up on paint, NOS or gasoline . . . I wonder if alcohol is detectable in a hair follicle test? Of course when these kids go off to work at job that require a urine test (which as stated is cheaper than a hair one), they’ll be influenced to do speed and pills just so they can decreases detection periods. Too bad companies who want you to not use drugs on the weekends or after work don’t pay for 24hrs worth of work 365 days a year just so they can earn the right to keep their staff drug free. Hey, if you’re willing to keep me on the clock after I’ve gone home, I’ll be drug free for you.
This will of course be followed by rules that ban head shaving and body hair removal. Students that arrive at school with no hair for testing will be sent home until it grows back.
the entire school should show up hairless,boys and girls,,what a fuckin news article!
HEY….there is a lot to be said for home schooling !!
My son is a teacher, and tells me that the profession with the highest percentage of home schooling is teachers. That’s right, the teachers see the problems with the system and want to keep their kids away from it. Whole thing was designed in Germany to produce good little robo-citizens to support the state, not to maximize the individual’s potential.
Not around here…My wife is an education professor, and most of our friends are school teachers. She also teaches professional development classes all over the school districts around here. Almost every one of the teacher’s kids that I’m aware of are in PUBLIC school. The only exception? The wife of one of her collegues is the headmistress of the rich kid’s private school here…their kids are going there. I do not know any home schooled kids in her entire cohort. Not a one. Haven’t even heard of one.
Actually it was designed in Prussia, not Germany. Otherwise you are correct about the reason it was designed — “to produce good little robo-citizens to support the state” and to produce unthinking cogs for the gears of the factory world.
Since factories are changing to using robots instead of human workers, schools need to go the way of the dinosaurs and parents need to allow kids to follow their own curiosity (unschooling) after the children have learnt to read. After all, humans are born with the ability and desire to learn; we do NOT need teachers to teach us how to learn, teachers are there, nowdays, specifically to indoctrinate not illuminate. Teachers in general, and schools in particular, only stifle the natural and inborn desire to and joy in learning and absolutely crush creativity and innovation in all their forms.
via the Baker Institute comes this article entitled “What is the best regulatory framework for legalized marijuana?”, a title of which is surely a sign of the times. There is some good stuff:
The Baker Institute….did they READ the laws in Washington and Colorado? “…despite the spirit of the state laws that are intended to decriminalize the personal-use of small amounts of marijuana.”
Those laws don’t “decriminalize personal use of small amounts of marijuana..” they LEGALIZE it. The Production, distribution and sale of marijuana is LEGAL (subject to pending rules) in these States, under State LAW. How do they expect to be taken seriously? It’s hard to believe they have it so wrong, and it makes the entire piece suspect. Probably had an intern write it.
I backed you up by posting this (awaiting moderation):
“Seeing as Mr Gary J Hale doesn’t appear to be aware of the present situation in either Washington or Colorado—the citizens of both these states voted in favor of legalized manufacture, distribution and consumption of marijuana—I find it curious as to why he would even attempt to write an article on this subject.”
Mea culpa.
“Your comment is [still] awaiting moderation.”
February 2, 2013 at 3:53 am
Author is ex-DEA. Explains why he writes that it’s only because of the “good graces” of the feds that CO and WA have gotten this far with their new laws.
And he says they better not have wholesale operations, ’cause that’ll bring the feds down on them.
Yeah, DC, he needs to take a gander at the laws.
Steve Elliot blog FYI:
http://tinyurl.com/adsezbd
McConnell Backs Hemp Legalization In Kentucky
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Louisville) is supporting a drive to legalize industrial hemp in Kentucky, his Washington, D.C., office announced on Thursday.
link isn’t working
http://tinyurl.com/arwrzdc
This link was just checked -worked. Sorry for that
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It appears that the jackboots at the DEA have settled on a strategy for dealing with the current state of affairs with regard to cannabis law reform. They’re just going to bald faced lie through their teeth. In today’s L.A. Times DEA stooge Bob Boner does just that.
http://discussions.latimes.com/20/la-ol-dea-marijuana-blowbac-20130201/10?sort=asc
I hope someone can go over there and set the record a little more straight. I can’t even get through the first sentence of a reply without calling him a lying asshole and all that will accomplish is getting me banned from making comments on the L.A. Times website. It’s really frustrating to have such a dictionary picture example of the total disrespect for the American public these people hold. I’ll try to cheer up as there is some good news. As we all know there really is a limited number of people that can be fooled all of the time and I believe that they’ve used up the ones that can only be fooled part of the time. Mr. Bonner should remember that successful con artists know when to cut and run.
It’s just a god damn shame that the American people are held in such little regard by the very people entrusted to administer the mundane yet very important task of the day to day needs of our government. Crap, where the heck is Thomas Jefferson when you need him?
You’re right. Lie loud, lie often, and stick to your story. “That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.”
“Suppose you are a corrupt prohibitionist parasite. And suppose you are a former DEA administrator. But I repeat myself….â€
—What Mark Twain would have said.
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Now, now, not every prohibitionist parasite will grow up to become the DEA administrator. That position is reserved for those people considered to be total assholes by the general population of total assholes.
BTW the L.A. Times reposted Mr. Bonner’s letter and wiped out our responses by doing so. Sheesh, prohibitionists, you can’t live with them and you can’t murder them.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/letters/la-le-0202-saturday-dea-marijuana-20130202,0,7881422.story
Nice work over there, you and Clay both, and others.
This one’s O/T, and only tangentially related to the drug war, but it’s interesting none the less. It may be useful ammunition to throw at those prohibs who trot out that study that purported to show a reduction in I.Q. due to pot use in young teens.
In short, fluoride causes a significant reduction in I.Q.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/fluoride_b_2479833.html
Questionable.
Dr. Steven Novella of Yale University, writes, referring to the same exact “study” (originally published on July 20, 2012):
Aren’t they talking about the article that appeared in the Bee, and weren’t they primarily criticizing the way the Bee presented it? It referenced the same Harvard analysis, but their problem seemed to be primarily with the Bee…
The Huffpost piece was clear it was a meta analysis, the Bee presented it as a study.
As a meta analysis it has all the problems normally associated with a “study of studies”. There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with the piece as long as you’re mindful of the general caveats.
I don’t want to sound crackpotish, but I have profound concerns about fluoride. It is neurotoxic, it builds up in brain and spinal tissues, and your body has no mechanism to eliminate or excrete it. That alone, absent any proven harm is enough to make me take a negative position on it as an additive to drinking water. And the people most likely to be funding research into it are the industries profiting from it.
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Get a load of a couple of the insane laws in the State of New Jersey:
How the heck do you end up in contempt of court when you’re pulled over by a traffic cop??