Time for a baldness fad in schools?

They used to want to watch kids pee in a cup. Now school officials have moved on to voodoo. They want a lock of kids’ hair in order to control them.

High School To Collect Students’ Hair For Mandatory Drug Testing

The school will collect 60 strands of hair from the student and test for several types of drugs, including marijuana and cocaine. If a student comes back with a positive drug test, that student will have 90 days to get drug-free.

Via Glenn Greenwald, who noted:

Training high school students to be meek subjects of authoritarian power: mandatory hair collection for drug tests http://t.co/I8qQorjn

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56 Responses to Time for a baldness fad in schools?

  1. claygooding says:

    Court says patients can share marijuana

    http://tinyurl.com/bzyvgyt

    “”Medical marijuana supporters received a key victory Wednesday — and the Michigan Attorney General’s Office suffered a setback — when the state Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that patient-to-patient transfers of the drug are allowed for medical use under state law.

    The court said that state-registered patients can legally deliver the drug to one another, as long as they don’t exchange money and they follow other provisions of Michigan’s medical marijuana act — such as staying within the act’s 2.5-ounce limit for anyone possessing the drug.”” ‘snip’

    Good news for MI mmj patients and aneeded slap in the face for the state AG.

  2. claygooding says:

    I am not sure of the cost of the hair burn but I know it is quite a bit more expensive than urine analysis.
    I wonder if the funds wasted on this would help with all the other shortages school districts are complaining about,,like teachers pay?

    • Duncan20903 says:

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      I think that it would be much more interesting to find out the identities of the vendors which are going to collect the fees for providing the testing service.

      • Dante says:

        Good call.

        In fact, I’ll bet you could probably name the people behind the vendors without even trying (Kevin S., General Mcaffrey, etc.). It’s always the same players, with the same drug war all wrapped up in a glittering new name.

        All the drug war’s bloody, twisted and pot-holed roads lead back to the same prohibitionists (who are profitting greatly from said prohibition). One day, when the carnage they have caused is assessed properly I hope they will be held accountable.

        • Duncan20903 says:

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          Sure I can name the wholesale vendors. But there are hundreds if not thousands of retail vendors and we just haven’t seen widespread use of hair testing by organizations who think testing their minions is a good idea. There must be a reason for that since hair testing will catch people that someone with a specimen cup can’t even dream of nailing.

          My money’s on someone in the school administration is getting paid to facilitate this nonsense. That person may have an ownership interest probably through a straw man, or it could be just plain old fashioned kickbacks. Whatever it is this thing is just plain fishy.

  3. ezrydn says:

    One day, we’ll be a nation of mail-order GEDs. Is that what they want? Thank God you got your education and degree(s) BEFORE all this idiocy started. Some of us DO have something to be thankful for.

  4. stlgonzo says:

    Rockhurst is a private catholic high school. While wrong-headed this is not a public school. You accept this crap when you decided to pay to send your kids there.

    • Uncle Albert's Nephew says:

      You’re right of course but the linked article wasn’t clear about that. I had to find that out in the comments. Once they privatize all the public schools except a few dumping grounds that won’t be much of a barrier to this crap anymore.

      • stlgonzo says:

        I think there is, and should be a distinction between publicly funded public schools (such as charter schools) that are privately run and private schools that are supported by tuition and donations.

    • Freeman says:

      Yep, the parents are footing the bill to have school authorities snoop on their children. I’m sure their kids are going to really appreciate the attention their parents are paying to outsourcing their up-bringing.

      • stlgonzo says:

        I agree. I cant stomach the idea of treating everyone like a criminal. It is a totalitarian mindset. However i believe people have the right to send there kids to get whatever education they want.

  5. stlgonzo says:

    Can they use any body hair? Time to open a waxing and laser hair removal salon in Kansas City?

  6. NorCalNative says:

    Pete, you’re not far off the mark. Apparently, this particular testing is more reliable when hair-length exceeds 3″.

  7. Brian Bennett called this a long time ago.

  8. Duncan20903 says:

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    It won’t cut it to just shave their heads. The ones that grow near peoples’ naughty parts or armpits will do the trick just as well. Has anyone tried to shave their entire body? It’s an extended process, particularly for men. Yes I did do that once. It didn’t happen a second time because doing so was a major pain in the ass. The fact that my scalp wouldn’t allow me to have a shiny Kojak head was also a significant contribution to that decision. The students mentioned above should consider waxing (ouch!) or electrolysis instead of shaving.

    ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———-

    Nigeria: Turning to a New Leaf – Should Marijuana Be Legalised?
    By Judd-Leonard Okafor, 29 January 2013

    Rings of marijuana smoke are not going away from Nigeria any time soon. They pour from the lips of big-name singers and motor-boys, drivers and teenagers.

    And voices largely on the sidelines and in support of marijuana want their pastime recognised as less dangerous than cigarette. They also want it made legal.

    Late afrobeat maestro Fela Anikulapo Kuti made no bones about smoking Indian hemp. And when his son Seun gave an interview, it wasn’t his musical genius that made headlines. It was an assertion that he smoked Indian hemp to relax.

    Except, you could be forgiven for not recognising the thing at stake is cannabis. A plethora of names describe marijuana in Nigeria–ganja, weed, we-we, igbo, gbanna, joint, rizlar, ginger, grass, roll, witch.

    Exactly when cannabis smoking took root is difficult to pin down. What’s not difficult to get is that its use is growing rapidly.
    /snip/

    Ginger? Witch?? We-we??? I think something has been lost in the translation.

    • allan says:

      if you like the African beat, Fela Kuti is pretty darn good. And as far as when ganja use took root in Africa… prehistory, of course. Ganja predates Nigeria.

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
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        I admit that I find it amusing just how many people believe that The Beatles and Bob Dylan invented cannabis in 1964. Oh right, don’t let me forget to mention their belief that a chemist employed by Cheech & Chong figured out how to make pot between 20 and 100 more potent in 1981.

        • Freeman says:

          No weed was ever more potent than that shit they had in 1937 that turned James Munch into a bat with just two puffs! The sole success story of marijuana prohibition is that it allowed authorities to completely eradicate that particular strain and it hasn’t managed to re-evolve itself since, otherwise there’d be a helluvalotta stoned bats flying around these past 75 years. True fact — it’s the real reason industrial hemp is still banned to this day!

          And I don’t care how less potent than today’s weed the academics who never smoked a joint say it is, I would absolutely LOVE me a fat sack of some of the Columbian Gold Bud I smoked all the time in the ’70’s. The buzz was great, and ohhhh, the taste!

        • Duncan20903 says:

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          The Cheech & Chong thing is a running joke. In their 3rd movie which was released in 1981, “Nice Dreams” they had a mad scientist working in a camouflaged swimming pool developing super potent reefer which turned people into lizards. The last we heard from Sgt. Stedenko he was fully transmogrified and sitting on the ledge outside his office with a bunch of pigeons turned lizard because he had blown so much smoke out the window previously. Every time I hear a prohibitionist talk about today’s super potent reefer I think of Jimmy (the mad scientist).

    • darkcycle says:

      The young ‘uns have less area covered by hair…You and me and Nemo? Like shaving gorillas.

      • Dante says:

        Gorillas with copious amounts of nose, ear and “other” hair that didn’t exist when we were younger.

        I’d rather have a root canal – at least then they give you the good stuff.

        (Speaking personally, of course)

  9. Servetus says:

    Kansas City, Missouri, isn’t exactly a bastion of freedom. In another part of the state, Jefferson City is proposing a bill in the Missouri House of Ill Repute that would require drug dealers to pay taxes on their drugs, in violation of the 5th Amendment that proscribes self-incrimination. I think Tim Leary won that case in the 70s.

    Anyway, by the time the new drug policy is implemented at Rockhurst High School, it’s going to look like it’s been invaded by Coneheads. It’s too bad, really. I think women and girls look better with a full head of hair.

    • Duncan20903 says:

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      I think they cured that defect by eliminating any requirement for the person buying the tax stamp to identify himself. Frankly I’m surprised that Missouri isn’t already a drugs tax stamp State.
      http://norml.org/legal/tax-stamps

      • Duncan20903 says:

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        There’s an ancient platitude that says, “speak of the Devil and in he walks.” I swear I haven’t heard anything about the illegal drugs tax stamp scam for at least 3 years. But yesterday was the proposed Missouri law and today it’s an ancient ruling from the Texas Court of Appeals. It appears that cannabis in Texas is de facto legal as long as you or your lawyer know the right magic words. Too bad that Willie Nelson missed his opportunity.

        /snip/
        It was reported, within the first five years of the law being on the books, the Comptroller’s Office issued more than $2-million in tax delinquency notices. But an unexpected court ruling turned the tables on the Stamp, as a result an unexpected loophole has been created. It came from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The 5 to 4 ruling in 1996, determined that locking people up on a drug charge and also charging them a tax penalty amounted to double jeopardy.

        “It’s double jeopardy, because the tax has nothing to do with anything but punishing people,” said Tom Moran.

        Moran was the lead defense attorney in the case and told said he hasn’t thought about the tax since the court ruling. The Comptroller’s office has stopped issuing assessment notices to people arrested on drug charges although the tax law remains on the books. Moran stopped just short of saying Texas has legalized Marijuana by default, but he agrees it has created a surprising loophole.

        “It’s provided an opportunity for people to pay their drug tax and avoid criminal prosecution or criminal punishment,” said Moran.

        If that didn’t sink in- look at this- someone arrested with a pound of pot has a choice. Go to jail for up to 2 years with a court fine of up to $10-thousand — or pay a $15-hundred tax bill and walk free.
        /snip/

        linky

  10. divadab says:

    So – you select your “approved” youth population for obedience, or skillful cheating, and reject anyone who shows rebellion or creative thinking. It’s a recipe for disaster, where all the societal power positions are occupied by those who have already submitted to successive abuses of their personal freedom, and those who dare to exercise their freedom are pushed into the fringes.

    No wonder there is such a lack of imagination and creativity in the halls of power. They are selected for obedience and lack of imagination from youth.

    In a changing world, this is beyond stupid.

  11. drwoo says:

    I’m a proud parent of 2 unschoolers, one of which is 19 and spent only 1 day in our education system. The other is about to be 7 he will never spend a day in our public school system and very unlikely a private school. Perhaps a Sudbury school if he would like to attend one at all. I never intend on violating my children’s privacy like that I will be damned if some strangers do. Its safe to say if he did attend school they would not being test him like this or he would be pulled from the school immediately.

    • allan says:

      both my kids went thru the public school system. But we taught them to read by building a love of reading by reading to them. They were consistently 2 or 3 grades above the standard reading levels.

      Elementary and middle schools were a breeze, HS not so much. They were spoiled (used to getting questions answered) and didn’t like being treated like cattle in classrooms with 35 other kids. Son dropped out and ended up in what when I was a kid woulda been considered a Juvie school. But it was a satellite school in a small district started by teachers. Their graduation rate is 20+ points higher than the state avg. Their class sizes were small, the rules strict and the staff outstanding. Son excelled in that school and graduated on time.

      Daughter didn’t finish so didn’t graduate but testing wise was one of the brightest kids in the school. But even then her talent was becoming obvious. She can sing, well. She has a husky, smokey quality to her voice and she plays piano. Again, well. But for me, it was her writing… she was 15 when she wrote this short story:

      the blue swing…

      and now she’s in college, into her second year and maintaining a 4.0 taking almost all academic classes.

      A child’s parents’ input matters far more than any school.

      • divadab says:

        Allen – thanks for sharing. My kid was a golden state scholar in 5 subjects, one of only 5 in his 700+ graduating class, and yet he barely graduated with a couple of D’s. Why? Boredom with the busywork and disrespect for what amounted to baby-sitting.

        Now he’s in grad school burning it up.

        Public education is a mixed bag – aimed at the mythical mean, training citizens for an orderly society. Exceptional students can sometimes find what they want but it seems to me it puts more hurdles in their way than opportunities.

        That said, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater – it’s the only public school system that we have, and too many of the Charter schools are like the one in KC – authoritarian boot camps that actively discourage thinking in favor of rote learning and drills. And total disrespect for personal freedom.

        • darkcycle says:

          Here here. And the folks on this couch care for their children, and value education as a means to ends, as well as for it’s own sake. We have to remember that MANY parents are not that engaged, didn’t get a decent education themselves, and hence may not support their children’s educations. Not every parent can homeschool, and not every parent WILL.

        • stlgonzo says:

          I live in the city of St. Louis and send my kids to a charter school. The regular city schools suck. I would not live in the city if they where not an option.

        • stlgonzo says:

          Also lets remember that this school in KC is not a charter school. It is a private catholic high school.

  12. War Vet says:

    I guess they are getting the kids ready for the working world of urine tests. This of course will push them into smoking the fake weed. The only way this could ever be rational is if we lived in a world where the dope was legal and then used drug testing to determine if the user is using outside of the approved age requirement. I wonder how many of theses tests are designed to pick up on paint, NOS or gasoline . . . I wonder if alcohol is detectable in a hair follicle test? Of course when these kids go off to work at job that require a urine test (which as stated is cheaper than a hair one), they’ll be influenced to do speed and pills just so they can decreases detection periods. Too bad companies who want you to not use drugs on the weekends or after work don’t pay for 24hrs worth of work 365 days a year just so they can earn the right to keep their staff drug free. Hey, if you’re willing to keep me on the clock after I’ve gone home, I’ll be drug free for you.

  13. Tony Aroma says:

    This will of course be followed by rules that ban head shaving and body hair removal. Students that arrive at school with no hair for testing will be sent home until it grows back.

  14. SCOOBY says:

    HEY….there is a lot to be said for home schooling !!

  15. primus says:

    My son is a teacher, and tells me that the profession with the highest percentage of home schooling is teachers. That’s right, the teachers see the problems with the system and want to keep their kids away from it. Whole thing was designed in Germany to produce good little robo-citizens to support the state, not to maximize the individual’s potential.

    • darkcycle says:

      Not around here…My wife is an education professor, and most of our friends are school teachers. She also teaches professional development classes all over the school districts around here. Almost every one of the teacher’s kids that I’m aware of are in PUBLIC school. The only exception? The wife of one of her collegues is the headmistress of the rich kid’s private school here…their kids are going there. I do not know any home schooled kids in her entire cohort. Not a one. Haven’t even heard of one.

    • Windy says:

      Actually it was designed in Prussia, not Germany. Otherwise you are correct about the reason it was designed — “to produce good little robo-citizens to support the state” and to produce unthinking cogs for the gears of the factory world.

      Since factories are changing to using robots instead of human workers, schools need to go the way of the dinosaurs and parents need to allow kids to follow their own curiosity (unschooling) after the children have learnt to read. After all, humans are born with the ability and desire to learn; we do NOT need teachers to teach us how to learn, teachers are there, nowdays, specifically to indoctrinate not illuminate. Teachers in general, and schools in particular, only stifle the natural and inborn desire to and joy in learning and absolutely crush creativity and innovation in all their forms.

  16. Deep Dish says:

    via the Baker Institute comes this article entitled “What is the best regulatory framework for legalized marijuana?”, a title of which is surely a sign of the times. There is some good stuff:

    The best manner by which to deal with the issue of legal marijuana is to provide context to the meaning of “legal.” The “legality” of marijuana must be addressed in terms that define the movement of the drug from the source to the street, or in this case, from the land to the lip.

    …The difference between whether an individual becomes a wholesaler, or is characterized as a personal user, will determine whether the federal government steps in to enforce laws that several states have chosen to liberalize through legislative change, or whether the federal government decides to not enforce the laws at all.

    That is to say that while the federal government may look the other way when it comes to the possession and consumption of personal-use quantities, the U.S. attorney general could rightfully order the Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal law enforcement agencies to enforce the Controlled Substances Act when it is found that marijuana wholesalers are attempting to blend their activities with those of individual cultivators or consumers, or to hide behind liberalized state laws. Wholesale marijuana sales would likely not be tolerated by the federal government, despite the spirit of the state laws that are intended to decriminalize the personal-use of small amounts of marijuana.

    …It is also likely that the U.S. attorney general’s office is waiting to see what Congress does in the wake of state laws legalizing personal use of marijuana before it develops policy at the Department of Justice.

    http://blog.chron.com/bakerblog/2013/01/what-is-the-best-regulatory-framework-for-legalized-marijuana/

    • darkcycle says:

      The Baker Institute….did they READ the laws in Washington and Colorado? “…despite the spirit of the state laws that are intended to decriminalize the personal-use of small amounts of marijuana.”
      Those laws don’t “decriminalize personal use of small amounts of marijuana..” they LEGALIZE it. The Production, distribution and sale of marijuana is LEGAL (subject to pending rules) in these States, under State LAW. How do they expect to be taken seriously? It’s hard to believe they have it so wrong, and it makes the entire piece suspect. Probably had an intern write it.

      • Head/of/Maintenance says:

        I backed you up by posting this (awaiting moderation):

        “Seeing as Mr Gary J Hale doesn’t appear to be aware of the present situation in either Washington or Colorado—the citizens of both these states voted in favor of legalized manufacture, distribution and consumption of marijuana—I find it curious as to why he would even attempt to write an article on this subject.”

      • Deep Dish says:

        Mea culpa.

      • Re-posted/it says:

        “Your comment is [still] awaiting moderation.”
        February 2, 2013 at 3:53 am

    • Matthew Meyer says:

      Author is ex-DEA. Explains why he writes that it’s only because of the “good graces” of the feds that CO and WA have gotten this far with their new laws.

      And he says they better not have wholesale operations, ’cause that’ll bring the feds down on them.

      Yeah, DC, he needs to take a gander at the laws.

  17. Steve Elliot blog FYI:

    http://tinyurl.com/adsezbd

    McConnell Backs Hemp Legalization In Kentucky

    Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Louisville) is supporting a drive to legalize industrial hemp in Kentucky, his Washington, D.C., office announced on Thursday.

  18. Duncan20903 says:

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    It appears that the jackboots at the DEA have settled on a strategy for dealing with the current state of affairs with regard to cannabis law reform. They’re just going to bald faced lie through their teeth. In today’s L.A. Times DEA stooge Bob Boner does just that.
    http://discussions.latimes.com/20/la-ol-dea-marijuana-blowbac-20130201/10?sort=asc

    I hope someone can go over there and set the record a little more straight. I can’t even get through the first sentence of a reply without calling him a lying asshole and all that will accomplish is getting me banned from making comments on the L.A. Times website. It’s really frustrating to have such a dictionary picture example of the total disrespect for the American public these people hold. I’ll try to cheer up as there is some good news. As we all know there really is a limited number of people that can be fooled all of the time and I believe that they’ve used up the ones that can only be fooled part of the time. Mr. Bonner should remember that successful con artists know when to cut and run.

    It’s just a god damn shame that the American people are held in such little regard by the very people entrusted to administer the mundane yet very important task of the day to day needs of our government. Crap, where the heck is Thomas Jefferson when you need him?

    “And what country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.” ~~ Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, Paris, November 13 1787

  19. darkcycle says:

    This one’s O/T, and only tangentially related to the drug war, but it’s interesting none the less. It may be useful ammunition to throw at those prohibs who trot out that study that purported to show a reduction in I.Q. due to pot use in young teens.
    In short, fluoride causes a significant reduction in I.Q.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/fluoride_b_2479833.html

    • Deep Dish says:

      Questionable.

      Dr. Steven Novella of Yale University, writes, referring to the same exact “study” (originally published on July 20, 2012):

      Anti-Fluoride Propaganda as News
      A news article in the Sacramento Bee declares: “Harvard Study Finds Fluoride Lowers IQ – Published in Federal Gov’t Journal.” Except – this is not a news item, and it’s not really a study. The article is about a recently published systematic review and meta-analysis – not new data. The term “study” is vague, and I find it often causes confusion.

      …There are many weaknesses to the epidemiological studies reviewed in the recent article – high heterogeneity, poor controlling for other variables, no indication of blinding of IQ assessments, and many others. But even taken at face value they do not indicate any association of between lower IQ and the fluoride levels added to drinking water in the US. In fact, those levels of fluoride were used as the controls in these studies showing higher IQ. (There was a lot of variance of the effect size, but the net effect size on IQ in the meta-analysis was -0.45 IQ points).

      This fact has not stopped anti-fluoridation groups from exploiting the review for their own propaganda purposes. Otherwise respectable news outlets are unwittingly collaborating in this anti-scientific propaganda campaign by lazily reprinting these press releases in their news sections – without any editorial filter.

      http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/anti-fluoride-propaganda-as-news/

      • darkcycle says:

        Aren’t they talking about the article that appeared in the Bee, and weren’t they primarily criticizing the way the Bee presented it? It referenced the same Harvard analysis, but their problem seemed to be primarily with the Bee…
        The Huffpost piece was clear it was a meta analysis, the Bee presented it as a study.
        As a meta analysis it has all the problems normally associated with a “study of studies”. There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with the piece as long as you’re mindful of the general caveats.
        I don’t want to sound crackpotish, but I have profound concerns about fluoride. It is neurotoxic, it builds up in brain and spinal tissues, and your body has no mechanism to eliminate or excrete it. That alone, absent any proven harm is enough to make me take a negative position on it as an additive to drinking water. And the people most likely to be funding research into it are the industries profiting from it.

  20. Duncan20903 says:

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    Get a load of a couple of the insane laws in the State of New Jersey:

    Roselle Park Police charge two men with marijuana possession in separate incidents
    By Suburban News on February 02, 2013

    ROSELLE PARK — Stanley Ogedegbe, 21, was charged with possession of marijuana, failure to turn over drugs to the police, and contempt of court during a traffic stop at approximately 1 p.m. on Jan. 25, police said. The Union resident was pulled over for traffic violations on East Westfield Avenue and the officer saw a marijuana filled cigar in the passenger door, police said. He was later turned over to the Roselle Police Department.
    /snip/

    How the heck do you end up in contempt of court when you’re pulled over by a traffic cop??

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