Pubdate: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 Source: Guardian, The (UK) Copyright: 2006 Guardian Newspapers Limited Contact: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175 Author: Sarah Boseley, health editor Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John) US DRUG CHIEF PROMOTES RANDOM TESTING IN SCHOOLS America's drug tsar raised the stakes on drug testing in schools yesterday, suggesting that it could come to be seen as normal required and "responsible behaviour" in the same way that some US schools routinely test all pupils for tuberculosis before admission. John Walters, director of the White House's office of national drug control policy, was speaking after meeting Jim Knight, an education minister. While Mr Walters said he had no authority to comment on the UK's drug policies, he made it clear that the US would continue to promote the tough line on drugs that has interested the British government. "Some schools in the United States say a child needs to have a TB test," he said. "It's not considered to be an invasion of privacy. It's responsible behaviour. I believe we're very close to be able to think about that in terms of substance abuse." Random drug testing has already started in schools in Kent. The government is taking part with Kent county council in a pilot project, overseen by Peter Walker, the headteacher of Abbey school in Faversham. In April Ruth Kelly, the then education secretary, told a teachers' conference that Abbey had found it "a hugely effective way of creating peer pressure against taking drugs in school". Mr Walters said cannabis use was not just a matter of personal choice and the expression of freedom in the same way as a preference for clothes and hairstyles. "We're still living as if substance abuse is a fashion statement," he said. Taking a strong line against marijuana was "not being judgmental but showing that we care". Up to 700 schools in the US have adopted random drug testing, he said, and one school a week was joining them. He said it was not his business to criticise the reclassification of cannabis in the UK but he believed cannabis was "a dead-end drug and a stepping stone to addiction". He added: "There's no question that these substances acting on human beings are bad for them and leads them to reach out for other drugs . ". The US policies were based on scientific evidence - some of it from the UK - that cannabis was linked to psychosis and schizophrenia. "We have a particular problem of our attitudes towards cannabis which hinders policy and hinders people going into treatment," he said. "The attitude is that it's only marijuana. It doesn't help if your kids are playing Russian roulette that they are using a smaller calibre weapon." Mr Walters strongly opposed harm reduction policies such as needle exchanges and injection rooms, saying they were "morally dubious". "It is a question of why you would want to use a Band-Aid against the serious disease of addiction when there is a solution," he said. Permitting such harm reduction measures gave the impression that "society allows a stance of it's OK to be an addict", he said. US opposition to harm reduction measures is likely to come under serious criticism at the International Aids conference in Toronto next week. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake