Drug Test: Why require when you can cheat it

With the many road accidents (incidents) these days, mostly caused by drivers under-the-influence, people start to worry now. The nightly news report always bombard us with gruesome road mishap of many kind. This can be attributed to many drivers, licensed drivers to be exact, who are not fit to drive. Not fit to drive, because many of them have not even attended a seminar on road safety. Many of them have learned the trade from their experience, which can be honed better with the help of seminars on road safety.

The recent report on drivers caught-in-the-act using illegal drugs gets the attention of authorities. They ask for answer on how these drug-addict drivers  were able to secure a driver’s license. Before a person can get a license, they will be required to pass a drug test. The suspect had the answer, he told reporters that he abstained from illegal drugs for three months prior to his taking the drug test. As expected, the drug test result is negative.

While I am in favor of having drivers  getting license subjected to a drug test, I am against the method of Drug Testing Center in examining urine for traces of illegal drugs. As I observed, this drug test thing is useless for the stated reason above. Dirvers who are into illegal drugs can actually do away from it.

To illustrate my point, I’ll bring you back to the Hayden Kho Sex Scandal cum Katrina Halili Drug Scandal. Katrina was accused by Kho’s mother as a drug addict.  To prove that Katrina is not into drugs, she  subjected herself to a drug test, at the office of PDEA which Hayden Kho also undergone. Hayden Kho, a doctor by profession, however, told the panel doing the investigation that the drug testing method using urine as sample is ineffective. He suggested the use of hair  as a better sample  to get traces of illegal drugs even up to 6 years back.

So why should we subject people getting license or people getting employed with the same method of drug testing? This only keeps drug testing companies richier or in business every weekdays with services that are good as garbage. This only worsen the long line of people getting license at Land Transportation Office (LTO), which in turn keeps the fixers thriving.

Authorities or lawmakers should, perhaps, come up with a law that requies drug test using hair sample, instead of urine, of people subjected to this kind of test. In this method, we are assured that drug-addicts can’t get a license and employment. In this way, we could somehow address this ill of our society.