Dear Enda

I decided to send an Email to Enda regarding the drug testing of childern. Below the fold is the content of the letter. If Enda replies I will let you know.

Dear Enda

I read with interest you idea’s about the introduction of Drug testing for Children. The Irish Times reported that you said that the “the system had worked in Britain and the US”. Yet the largest survey undertaken on this issue by the University of Michigan in 2003 who surveyed 94,000 pupils. http://www.rwjf.org/research/researchdetail.jsp?id=1234&ia=

Stated:

Data suggest that drug testing, as practiced in recent years in American secondary schools, does not prevent or inhibit student drug use. The two forms of drug testing that are generally assumed to be most promising for reducing student drug use - random testing applied to all students, and testing of athletes - did not produce encouraging results.

I would be interested to know what did you base your assertion that it had worked in the US on.

Also considering that media reports in 2006 stated that traces of cocaine had been found in the toilets beside the Dail bar. Will you bring proposals forward for the random drug testing of members of Dail Eireann. As a gesture of pro-activity on this issue it would be useful if you were willing to be the first person to take the drug test.

If needs be I will be willing to pay for the test. I am sure that a basic home test would be adequate to determine whether or not peer pressure among Dail Deputies has corrupted your good self. Of course the object of the exercise would be not be to “find people out” but to direct them towards appropriate services and counselling to wean them off drugs.

Regards