To the Editor:

Drug abuse of all types, including excess alcohol use, is the biggest problem facing our county and our country.

It costs billions of dollars in lost wages, production, and health expenses. That doesn’t include the loss of many lives. It is time the county put this on top of our priority list

It’s time for the school board to require drug testing for every employee in the school system.

Drug testing is demanded by businesses such as International Paper, officers in our prisons and the list goes on; yet the most precious young people in our lives are not protected when they go to school. The only people tested in the school system are the bus drivers, who are subject only to random testing.

The school board must be accountable for keeping our schools a drug free environment at every level.

How are we going to pay for it? I would suggest the use of some of the unappropriated funds — $324,648.68 — the Board of Supervisors voted to give the school system.

Glenn H. Updike

Newsoms