U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Dole recently announced she wants legislation passed requiring teenagers applying for their driver’s licenses to submit to drug testing — so that they’ll realize how important it is to be drug-free.
While we agree that operating a 2,000-pound weapon under the influence of any intoxicant is dangerous and stupid, we think Dole is missing the point. We fail to see how implementing a system for drug testing will predict whether a person will also use drugs while driving.
According to the Mothers Against Drunk Driving Web site, drunken driving is the nation’s most frequently committed violent crime. Alcohol, however, is virtually undetectable in a drug test, unless the person being tested had been drinking in the past 24 hours.
Even if alcohol were detectable in drug tests, the assumption is that people who drink do so responsibly, and that they refrain from operating a vehicle if they are intoxicated. Does this same assumption not apply to people who use drugs on occasion? Drug users are not “high” all the time, making them no more likely to get behind the wheel while under the influence than a drinker.
Teenagers are often in an experimental phase of their lives. Some of the them affected by this plan may be “just experimenting” with drugs and alcohol. But only those teens who have been using marijuana would fail the test, and those who have been drinking alcohol would not. Either way, the test is not reflective of whether any substances were consumed before driving, and it is not a predictor of whether substances will be consumed before driving in the future.
We also worry about the establishment of a governmental infrastructure to organize and implement drug testing for so many people. This is a frightening first footfall toward a fascist fantasy.
Currently, some states have laws revoking the licenses, at least temporarily, of teens caught driving under the influence. If Dole is interested in a policy that will actually deter dangerous driving, maybe she could promote legislation that would permanently revoke the licenses of people who are found to be driving while intoxicated. Drug testing isn’t the answer.