drug/alcohol testing policy: effective?

"Capt.Doug" wrote in message
The truth is that if someone really tests positive on the tests, then his
co-workers probably already knew about his problem. I think most testing
centers would be hard pressed to come up with an example of actually
finding genuine abusers that no one knew about already.

I agree with you as far as social abusers are concerned (drinking alcohol
and smoking marijuana). However, I disagree with you when it comes to
prescription drug abusers. People addicted to pain-killers,
anti-depressants, and other illicit pills may be closet users. Many times
their own families aren't aware of their dependency. How about heroin?
Ever
see any pilots shooting up at the bar? Is a heroin user going to want his
colleagues to know about his habit? Will his non-aviation user friends
care
if he flies at less than 100%?

Nobody always flies at 100%. I agree that it's hard to detect closet
abusers. But where here is the evidence that this type of abuse was a
problem in the aviation community to begin with and that the huge financial
cost and emotional burden of ther invasion of privacy is warranted?
Nobody's posted it here yet.

Eventually, the abuser will have to decide if they want to get high with
drugs or with an airplane. That is the worth of testing. It doesn't happen
overnight. Without drug testing regulations, it may never happen, until
it's
too late.

With more invasive monitoring and spending we could weed out other potential
problems too. Government as nanny. Spend more money. Yesss...

moo