Drug testing and the loss of freedom

The debate and concern are healthy. The issue is thorny. There is no good, clear answer, but there is a lot to worry about.

Kids are being assaulted by waves of drugs coming into the U.S. Parents and teachers who want to protect them view drug testing as a preventive tool to identify students who have started using and to get them help.

It’s a powerful argument.

The country has been unsuccessful in stemming the tide of drugs targeted at its most vulnerable citizens. Asking kids to "just say no" hasn’t been enough. The fight against drugs has come to the last line of defense, parents and schools.

Drug testing is a desperate step. It is acknowledgement that education and efforts to develop a strong sense of personal responsibility are failing to save kids from losing their lives to powerful drugs.

The message is simple and clear: Using drugs is illegal. Use drugs, lose a privilege. It makes sense.

But there is another message here, one that makes drug testing part of what should be a larger national debate.

The message is that society is scared and will do almost anything to feel secure. We are scared to walk down the street. We are scared of losing our property and our children. We are scared of each other.

So, we fight back with the defensive weapons at hand.

We install security systems and video cameras in businesses, schools, government buildings and on busy highways.

We demand thumbprints and photo identification from people who cash or write checks.

We demand private Social Security numbers to run credit checks. We demand that employees, students and athletes be tested for drugs.

We monitor business phone calls "to ensure quality." We put recording timers on computers to make sure workers are productive.

We treat everyone as if they are guilty until proven innocent.

In the process, we are raising new generations of citizens who don’t know they have any right to privacy at all.

They don’t know Social Security numbers were intended to be private to prevent them from become a national identification card.

They don’t flinch when government determines that their bodies must be tested. They don’t notice the camera’s eye as it pans over them.

They do not experience life in a trust-based society in which people are innocent until proven guilty.

In the desperate search for greater safety, we are slowly but surely sacrificing personal privacy and freedom. We are making the Golden Rule an anachronism.

It’s like going barefoot. At first, rocks and thorns hurt a lot, but little by little, as the skin thickens, the pain goes away.

Any pain due to losses of privacy is diminishing rapidly.

Computerized commerce and institutional databases are storing up information on consumers, what they buy, what they spend and how much they’re worth as fast as one can say, "Charge it."

The federal government is exploring the idea of giving everyone in the country a national health identification number in order to make transferring from one health plan to another easier and to make sure health records follow.

Gene-testing is beginning to give lawmakers fits because the tests could be used to deny individuals insurance coverage and proper medical treatment.

Viewed individually none of these things seems threatening. All have begun with the intention of making life better, easier, healthier and more comfortable. Yet, viewed together, they seem Orwellian.

What used to seem like science fiction is real in this computer age. It is not a great leap to say that it would all be a lot easier if we just implanted an information-packed computer chip in each child born in this country.

Hello scanners. Hello instant credit, background and medical records.

Goodbye library cards, insurance cards, credit cards, health cards, social security cards, school ID cards, medical bracelets and passports. Goodbye fingerprints.

Life would be smoother, and safer in this technological fortress. But would it, really?

We must think long and hard about the consequences when we give up personal freedoms. They should not be offered up thoughtlessly or easily.