(no subject)

[theweaselking]

New Jersey high school to institute random alcohol testing on Monday mornings - with a test that can detect alcohol use up to 80 hours earlier.

Apparently now it's the school's business whether you drink on the weekend. With a test that detects use of mouthwash as "drinking alcohol".

Comments

[fearmeforiampink]

Out of curiosity, what's the American law like on drinking alcohol at home? Cause I know that in the UK, you can drink alcohol in a private house quite legally from the age of 10, as long as it's with the approval and supervision of your parents.

[ryusen.livejournal.com]

in the US, the parent's would get into trouble for giving alcohol to a minor.

[harmonatrix.livejournal.com]

Must be 21 or over..full stop. A parent can get arrested for serving alcohol to anyone younger.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

There is no single American law, it's done state by state. Parents are more than free to give their children alcohol in the privacy of their own home, contrary to what the two posters above have written.

[jerril]

Admitedly not the most reliable source in the universe, but still handy for basic information - a quote from the introduction to the Wikipedia article on the National Minimum Drinking Age Act (emphasis mine):

The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 was passed on July 17, 1984 by the United States Congress as a mechanism whereby all states would become thereafter required to legislate and enforce the age of 21 years as a minimum age for purchasing or public possession of alcoholic beverages...

While this act did not outlaw the consumption of alcoholic beverages by those under 21 years of age, some states extended its provisions into an outright ban. However, most states still permit "underage" consumption of alcohol in some circumstances. In some states, no restriction on private consumption is made, while in others, consumption is only allowed in specific locations, in the presence of consenting and supervising family members, and/or during religious occasions.

[culfinriel.livejournal.com]

Big Brother seems to be running out of original ideas.

[zenten.livejournal.com]

So they can test to see if you actually took communion eh?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Oh, THAT'S awesome.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

Third one-liner of the day!

(Man, I should start taking notes. What's that page that lets you see what the last ten comments you've posted are?)

[zenten.livejournal.com]

http://www.livejournal.com/tools/recent_comments.bml#posted

[torrain.livejournal.com]

Perfect, thanks.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

The US alcohol laws are just weird. They almost seemed to designed to create problem drinkers.

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

You noticed that too, huh?

I swear, the louder this country trumpets about our freedoms, the fewer of them we have.

[gothpanda.livejournal.com]

If I went to that school, I would organize a protest that involved every kid in the school using mouthwash every day. They can't punish everyone.

[ryusen.livejournal.com]

Yeah... i rememebr reading that and thinking... "Kids should just stock up on Binaca (sp?) and openly use it all the time in school...

[caramia.livejournal.com]

Obvious flaws:
Random is never truly random (how often do you think the "good" kids will get tested? (Even though they are usually twice as sneaky)(no offense to you good kids out there who are innocent)
Mouthwash will be used and used as an excuse.

Question: How does this affect their future? High schools have a habit of helping to wreck a teen's future without a thought or care to the teen's circumstances.

Devil's advocate: We have all been a teenageer with the smoking, the drinking the drugs. BUT While I was smoking pot, these kids are smoking meth. So if there was a way the system could help iwould be for it. And although kids have been alcoholics since alcohol was invented, and I would love a system that could help my child, I fear this one will only work against kids and their families instead of with them, for them.

[sivi-volk.livejournal.com]

Er, most of the kids I knew 4 years ago in high school were smoking pot or drinking. I'm not sure there's really an increasing drug problem. I rather think it's been fairly even along the board since the 70s. It's more an increased availability of drugs, if anything.

[caramia.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I am not sure where you live, but if pot & booze are all your communities need to worry about, you are lucky. ***I mean that sincerely, not sarcasticly.***

Meth & E are huge here and I mean huge. Fourteen year olds rolling on 8 pills a night for the better part ofthe weekend. Methheads of every age, starting quite young populate the city parks.

The populations have trippled since the seventies, and the drug use has grown ten times that exponentially.

[zenten.livejournal.com]

Generally Ontario doesn't have those problems that most of the US is having, although there are signs we might be getting them in the next 5-10 years.

[caramia.livejournal.com]

Well, when I was living in ottawa (I am from Ontario, I just recently moved out west here to BC less than a year ago.) E was huge amongst younger (and I mean younger, like 14) kids. More so than acid when I was a kid. These kids roll almost to point of overdose on a regular basis.

Don't get me wrong, I am not for a system that invades anyone's privacy the way it does. But, because in my belly is a bay, I am looking at the systems we do have and wonder what can be done to help the children.

Ya dig?

[zenten.livejournal.com]

Odd, I was under the impression that E is actually reasonably hard to get in Ottawa (although not as hard as acid).

[caramia.livejournal.com]

Lord no, and from what I've been told lately, it's even cheaper than it was a year ago by a lot.

[zenten.livejournal.com]

Plus it penalizes all the good Christian kids who take communion.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Catholics aren't REAL TRUE Christians, didn't you know?

They're devil worshippers. And they eat babies. Unless they need to be included to make the demographic statistic of "X% of people are Christians" bigger, in which case they're just fine.

[zenten.livejournal.com]

Who said anything about catholics? The only church I know of that doesn't have wine with communion (and instead has grape juice) is the United Church of Canada, and needless to say they don't count.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

But many churches don't have communion at all. Largest among these are the Baptists, who are the also conveniently the largest offenders in the behaviour I described above.

[zenten.livejournal.com]

You know, I didn't even realize that.

[caramia.livejournal.com]

Yes. The catholic children of the world should unite!

[torrain.livejournal.com]

(1) The test is supposedly calibrated for two drinks. Unless said good Christian kid is getting *really* enthusiastic about the blood of Christ, the wine isn't going to cut it.

(2) Some churches don't let the kids drink wine, even during communion.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

*RE*calibrated to "two drinks", after it was discovered to detect mouthwash.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

*cross-references these facts*

Blood of Christ mouthwash--leaves your breath salvation fresh!

...I'm going to hell.

[mrsteerpike.livejournal.com]

This is FUCKED up! I mean really...on a fundamental level. I find it so amusing how much interest Americans are taking in these things (I'm not even going to refer to them as issues). When I was 14, I went to Scotland with my folks on vacation, and on a tour of Edinburgh castle, there was a woman giving out free thimbles of whiskey. I, like my parents was offered one in turn. I was about to accept, when the lady drew he offer back to ask my parents "is it alright with you?" My folks nodded, and I was presented with it. Just like that. Lo and behold, I did not become an alcoholic 80 hours later. I love the difference in attitudes when you cross the pond.
It should also be clear how much money America has. I mean, they wouldn't DREAM of confronting something such as this for money that could be spent upgrading text books or supplies, or hospital equipment, or even on hand out scholarships to under privileged students to give them an opportunity at higher learning. Would they?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

they wouldn't DREAM of confronting something such as this for money that could be spent upgrading text books or supplies, or hospital equipment, or even on hand out scholarships to under privileged students to give them an opportunity at higher learning. Would they?

You're funny. The schools are constantly underfunded on critical supplies, the teachers are underpaid and outnumbered, and yet they waste money on stupid shit like this, constantly.

But, you see, it's okay, because in mainstream America, education is *bad*, knowledge can't be trusted, and schools are there only to keep you out of trouble until you grow up, and only necessary because your mother is a horrible person who didn't home-school you.

[mrsteerpike.livejournal.com]

(just so this doesn't spiral out of control, my particular brand of sarcasm doesn't come through all that clearly when written down, so I'd just like to point it out, that I was completely sarcastic. :P)

Sounds like the good ol' US of A has a program similar to the one instituted in Futurama. "Midnight basketball just taught them [hooligans] to function without sleep."

Teach the future crack dealers how to accurately divide a shipment if Client A buys 2 ounces at $30.00 a gram, and Client B buys in bulk and gets a savings of 4.17$/gram, and wishes to buy 1/2 a pound.

or

If Sally they hooker charges $10.00 a hand job, $20.00 a blow job, $75.00 for vaginal, and $135.00 for anal, how much should she charge for....

Unit conversion and word problems and so forth. Useful skills. Up there with teaching Ebonics in lieu of English.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

> education is *bad*, knowledge can't be trusted,

That horrible Onion article about the doctor who didn't have any fancy degrees or book learning and was perfectly happy to spit on his hands and just dive in there and kinda poke around to see what was wrong is coming to mind.