Editor, The Herald:

I appreciate so much your editorial of February 17, re: drug testing welfare recipients.

At this point in history, people seem to be so intent on trying to control other people; one cannot control anyone but themselves; their own thoughts and actions.

Drug testing is one of the ideas that has steadily eroded our freedoms.

When I was a child, Nikita Khrushchev said that he did not have to attack the U.S.A.: that we would destroy ourselves with drugs. I think that included our response to drugs/to the drug culture.

Several years ago, I woke at a place (a drug clinic) that demanded a drug test of all employees- sort of out of the blue. I told them I would take the test under protest.

Of course, I passed the test. And, as soon as the results came back as negative, I resigned the position. I had told them ahead of time that I thought drug tests were unconstitutional, and that was what I would do if they demanded a drug test.

Just because people are poor or otherwise in hard times does not justify invading their bodily space. Address their behavior, not their bodily fluids.

All of us lose when one person's rights are violated.

Diann Byrd Inge LPC

Farmville