Mandatory Drug Testing for All Pregnant Women Is the Stupidest Idea Ever

dinsdag 17 september 2013

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
by Adriana Velez 2 hours ago

Great news for women expecting babies in Indiana: Drug tests for everyone! Cheers! Indiana's attorney general Greg Zoeller is proposing mandatory drug testing for all pregnant women and girls. It's about money, supposedly. Zoeller says screening pregnant women for drugs could save the state $30 million in hospital fees for treating infants with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) -- babies born addicted to drugs, in other words.

Okay ... if this highly intrusive abuse of human rights really were in the interest of helping drug-dependent women and girls get treatment, I could see how it might be almost justifiable. But come on, can you think of any other group of people who are subject to mandatory drug testing without probable cause? If you were pregnant, would you be okay with this?

Apparently Indiana doesn't have the greatest history in the way it treats pregnant women with drug dependency. You're more likely to get criminalized than to get help, which means another baby in the system and another woman in prison. And that sounds more expensive.

I worry that if at-risk women and girls know drug testing is mandatory during pregnancy, they'll be less likely to seek the treatment they need throughout their pregnancy. Because they're not seeing a doctor (which is already a big problem among low-income women especially), other health problems will go untreated, resulting in problems with delivery and health issues for their babies. All this because they're afraid a drug test will land them in jail.

I'm sure plenty of women will read this and say, "Well, if you're not taking drugs, you have nothing to worry about." But I can't be that selfish and short-sighted.

What is it about being pregnant that suddenly makes you less of a human in some people's eyes? Why don't we trust pregnant women? Why are they treated more like property or dependents? I hope AG Zoeller's proposal fails.

Do you think there should be mandatory drug testing for pregnant women and girls?

Image via Jeremy/Flickr

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Adriana Velez

is a staff writer who dabbles in food, parenting, news, entertainment, molecular biology, and anything else that that pops into her head. She lives with her elementary school-aged son in Brooklyn, land of urban farms and artisan everything.  

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High School Testing Kids' Hair for Alcohol Use Goes Way too Far

maandag 5 augustus 2013

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Checking high school kids to make sure they aren't drinking alcohol is nothing new. When I was a kid, the school threatened to park a police officer with a breathalyzer to test prom-goers before they could board the bus for an after-prom trip to an amusement park. That was much longer ago than I'd like to admit. But testing a kid for being drunk on school grounds is one thing. Testing kids for using alcohol, as long as three months ago? Well, that's the plan at a Chicago-area high school.

St. Viator High School is adding alcohol to its mandatory drug testing policy this year. Kids will randomly be forced to submit to tests of their hair to determine if they've been drinking.

But this test doesn't just catch a kid who is drunk today, at school. It can detect alcohol usage over the past 90 days. Fail more than once, and a kid will be subject to disciplinary action.

Holy big brother, Batman!

Parents tend to have pretty strong opinions about kids and alcohol. Some say the two should never mix. Some think it's OK to introduce them, provided you use common sense.

Either way you want to parent, that's your prerogative, but still, that should be up to you. The parent.

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For a school to say they're going to start disciplining kids for off-campus drinking is absurd. They're stepping into parental territory.

I happen to be one of the latter of the aforementioned parents. I plan to allow my daughter to do a modicum of drinking once she's a teenager. It will be at home, not out at parties, and it won't be in excessive quantities. I grew up in a home where we were taught to have one beer or glass of wine with dinner, and I think it helped demystify alcohol, preventing some of the dangerous alcoholic antics many kids fall victim to in college. 

It's not how every parent operates, but many do. It's our right ... not to mention perfectly legal.

How dare a school punish a kid for doing something their parents approved? Something that happened off of school grounds? Something that carries no shame with it nor illegality?

I'm all for schools keeping our kids safe, but ultimately, there are some decisions that remain in the parents' hands. What a kid does with alcohol off-campus is one of them.

Would you allow your child to have this test done?

Image via stevendepolo/Flickr

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Free Pool Water Testing Kit!

donderdag 11 juli 2013

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