Free 420 Drug Tests: Brilliant or Buzzkill?
SodaHead News
2012/04/20 13:00:00
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If you don't know what day it is, this probably won't matter much to you. But for some, April 20 is a lot more than Hitler's birthday. For weed smokers, it's known simply as 420. The high holiday. Legend has it the 420 tradition was planted by a group of teenagers at a Northern California high school in the early '70s, but whatever the origin, it's become the most sacred day on the stoner calendar.
Well, Syracuse police aren't having any of it. Starting yesterday, local police have been handing out hundreds of home drug tests to help parents determine whether their kid is partaking in the festivities. They're calling it the "420 Prevention Project." Of course, the tests aren't going to land the kids in jail if they're administed by parents. The point is to open a dialogue, to let parents know what their kids are into. So what do you say? Are these at-home drug tests brilliant... or just a buzzkill?
Well, Syracuse police aren't having any of it. Starting yesterday, local police have been handing out hundreds of home drug tests to help parents determine whether their kid is partaking in the festivities. They're calling it the "420 Prevention Project." Of course, the tests aren't going to land the kids in jail if they're administed by parents. The point is to open a dialogue, to let parents know what their kids are into. So what do you say? Are these at-home drug tests brilliant... or just a buzzkill?
Top Opinion
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Lucy Sparkles :3 2012/04/20 16:07:10
I know you don't live in the US, which was part of my point... try thinking.
"I live in a place where we do this routinely to help those around us."
Helping people who haven't mustered the initiative to ask for assistance is a waste of resources.
PS
There is nothing worse than a busybody do-gooder, which is why I'll never live in the UK ;)
We had one instance when we had HIV testing kits in the middle of a university atrium...quite a busy one. With a bright...loud might be a better description sign saying, "HIV TESTING KIT's FREE, YOU MIGHT HAVE AIDS"
Not one of them was touched XD
Edit
As for being a busy body, we still have those in some parts, though we're getting a bit more like america in the lack of socialising respect. Most people meet up over World of Warcraft =P (jk jk)
Don't expect citizens to pay for slack parenting.
*Edit* To be fair, dad would supply me with pot, rather than worry about where I got it.
Honest parents breed honest children ^_^
My parents never toked (my mother does smoke cigarettes, and has since long before I came along). I did toke as a teenager, but to be fair to my parents, all that was known by then was that pot really wasn't as harmful as government was trying to claim and that it as virtually "safe"... it's only in very recent years they can link it to amotivational syndrome in teengers. So, I'm not sure they would have supplied it so eagerly now, if I was a teen, but I agree entirely that the honesty and openess breed the same qualities in children.
While I support legalization, I don't think marijuana use by children is a good idea.
My life would suck.
Fortunately for me, I have awesome parents who wouldn't do that.
Seriously, though, I agree... children don't need pot (and I'm not against pot in the least)... but I don't think it's fair for taxpayers to be funding this "gift". If parents are truly concerned, they can purchase a kid themselves... or, pay attention to their children.