Suffolk heroin task force favors drug tests

High school athletes should be screened for illegal drug use as part of physicals required to play an interscholastic sport, the Suffolk Legislature's heroin task force proposed Thursday.

The recommendation is one of 48 the 12-member panel made to lawmakers in a 51-page report. The group also suggested primary care physicians add drug tests as routine elements of checkups for adolescents and the implementation of an alcohol tax to fund drug treatment and support services.

Other suggestions include legalizing involuntary placement of people in drug treatment facilities and using police drug-sniffing dogs for locker inspections.

"We are in the midst of a crisis," said Jeffrey Reynolds, executive director of the Long Island Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence, who led the panel. "It's put a big spotlight on all the things that we should have dealt with before now. It's going to cost some money, but we believe the investment is worth it."

Most of the panel's recommendations are not under the county legislature's purview. For instance, state lawmakers would have to approve an alcohol tax. A spokesman for Senate GOP leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) said Thursday that Skelos hadn't read the report and could not comment on it.

Suffolk lawmakers to whom the panel presented the report acknowledged the depth of Long Island's heroin problem but said they feared constituents are unlikely to accept higher taxes to address it.

"The holy grail is, 'No taxes, no taxes,' " said Legis. Vivian Viloria-Fisher (D-East Setauket). "That's the reality."

County legislators have no authority over local schools' decisions, but Reynolds said he hoped lawmakers could try to influence school officials.

School officials had mixed reactions to the proposals Thursday.

"I have two teenage boys and I think as a parent I have no problem with it at all," said Thomas Shea, the superintendent of the South Huntington district and the former president of the Suffolk County Association of School Superintendents. "As a superintendent, I'm afraid that there might be some First Amendment issues in terms of rights to privacy."

Paul Longo, football coach at William Floyd High School in Mastic Beach, said he wouldn't oppose mandatory drug testing for his players. "Maybe it would be a deterrent," he said. "If, God forbid, one of my kids was using drugs, it would be good to know about it and get the kid help."

Mandatory drug testing of student athletes has occurred in other parts of the country. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the policy constitutional in a case involving an Oklahoma high school that required random drug testing of students in many extracurricular activities.

With Stacey Altherr

and Bob Herzog