Pubdate: Thu, 04 Apr 2002
Source: Athens Banner-Herald (GA)
Copyright: 2002 Athens Newspapers Inc
Contact:  http://www.onlineathens.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1535
Author: Lennon Haas

TOUGHER DETECTION, PENALTIES WON'T STOP YOUTH DRUG USE

Part of the crusade against substance abuse has always been to remove drugs 
from America's institutions of education, a noble pursuit for sure. 
However, all manner of authority, from the DEA on down to local school 
boards have consistently approached this problem from the wrong angles. 
Developing more and more sophisticated methods of detecting drugs and 
doling out harsher and harsher punishments to offenders just isn't working. 
In the case of local schools, recent efforts using drug dogs and random 
locker checks turned up negligible amounts of narcotics. By doing this, 
school board members, principals and others look ''tough on drugs.'' The 
reality, though, is that those efforts did nothing to protect our youth and 
steer them away from drugs. Rather than toe the accepted line on youth drug 
abuse, county and school officials need to try and think outside of the box 
to find solutions to what admittedly is a terrible problem.

Lennon Haas
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom