Big Brother In Your Toilet

Just when you thought it was safe to relax on the pot, it's not.

A news story just leaked in the Lima Ohio Times from Associated Press Science Writer Beth Borenstein states that researchers are flush with the glow of success at having tapped into a community-wide drug test using just one teaspoon of municipal waste water. They claim their improved process is a response to under reporting drug use via less-than-candid incriminating questionnaires, and gives a whole new meaning to the idea of wiping out dangerous drugs.

In a recent report to the American Chemical Society in Boston, an Oregon State University team of scientists revealed test results for 10 unnamed U.S. cities with snapshot results for both legal and illegal drugs. I guess they're on a roll to blow the lid even further off our privacy.

This so-called community urinalysis, which is more accurate than previous attempts by two Federal agencies (oh, really?), showed significant differences in meth abuse city to city. One unspecified urban locale with a gambling industry sampled 5 times higher than others, with methamphetamine readings virtually non-existent in some other smaller Midwest towns. A different upper crust municipality metered low on illegals except for coke, which, along with ecstasy, peaked way up on weekends, while meth and presciptors stayed steady.

Hmnmmm. Sure sounds like Big Brother to me, if not Little Sister.

I wonder if the American Chemical Society Conference would enjoy seeing the aggregated piss test results of their little gathering analyzed and published, especially for the weekend. They should all get one of these http://inventionshowcase.com/jlhome.htm doohickeys to help them see the light and tank all their future porcelain protocol papers.

For the published story with quotes search the AP homepage or go to
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CITYWIDE_DRUG_TEST?SITE=OHLIM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT