Thursday, May 24, 2007

Stupid Rules

We have a law here that requires all motor vehicle drivers and all candidates for public office to submit to a urine drug screen. In Oklahoma, only applicants for commercial driver's licenses need to pass this test. Over here, the test is a total farce. You show up whenever you want and nobody checks if you give your own urine. The chain of custody in handling the specimen is riddled with defects. In short, in an attempt to emulate a procedure that should adequately screen for drug users, stupidity rules.

The critical feature in this form of screening is in the randomness of the sampling. What we have is an entirely money-making bureaucratic hurdle that significantly adds to the inconvenience without accomplishing its stated task.

An estimate recently came out pegging the cost of each law passed to something like 200 million pesos, factoring the number of laws passed to the budget consumed by both legislative bodies. This is an example of of such a 200 million peso law and people continue to ask me why I tried to secure a seat in the senate.

5 comments:

Jerome Herrera said...

I totally agree. As a nursing student I am constantly being subjected to differents tests such as fecalysis, urinalysis, etc. Indeed when I go have a fecalysis, I can just hand in another person's feces no one would know about it.

Anonymous said...

You think the government is stupid, just look at the trend of having 20 something females undergo treadmill testing as part of an "executive Physical exam" promoted by most private hospital in major cities all over the country.A purely moneymaking gimmick if you ask me.

Asia said...

You really are a new breed of future servant leader. Way to go.
I will be with you in your vision and mission for the good of the Philippines.

Anonymous said...

Any money-making scheme papatulan talaga. Maybe if we check who own the big drug testing centers accredited by LTO, chances are kamag-anak din ng mga taga-LTO. Government agencies, barangays have their own gimmicks. In Pasig, before a business can secure a barangay clearance, it has to get some sort of an insurance from "accredited insurance companies", an x-ray (even if the business is not involved in food or health business), and a plastic ID card. Every year, may bagong pakulo. Every year nagiging weird.

Hindi tuloy nagiging simple ang proseso para makakuha ang tao ng lisensya o humingi ng permit sa negosyo. Natututo pa tuloy mag-shortcut o mandaya ang mga tao para di sayang ang oras.

Tito Cesar said...

wala bang nagtataka sa mga nasabing anti-drug authorities na sa dinami daming drug tests na ginagawa sa mga driver's license applicants lahat sila ay pasado at negative sa urine test ganoong laganap ang gumagamit ng prohibited drugs?

Ihinto na lang itong test na ito dahil wala namang silbi at paraan lang para pagkakitaan ng mapagsamantala at pabigat lang sa tao.