Pubdate: Fri, 07 Apr 2006
Source: Daily Iowan, The (IA Edu)
Copyright: 2006 The Daily Iowan
Contact:  http://www.dailyiowan.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/937
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

DRUG PROPOSAL MISSES THE MARK

President Bush has proposed an initiative to increase by 50 percent 
the number of random drug tests in high schools.

Currently, only 600 schools nationwide perform "suspicionless" drug 
tests, according to the White House Office of National Drug Control 
Policy, which has spent $8 million to promote and support this 
testing since 2002. While we appreciate that drugs are bad, this 
policy is misguided for many reasons and should be abandoned.

Given that low participation to date can be credited more to reticent 
high schools than a lack of funding, much of the $15 million 
requested will likely go into promotional efforts, as the feds try to 
coax more schools into the program.

They will be facing an uphill fight on several levels; Iowa state 
law, for example, prohibits random testing outright.

And schools have good reason for their doubts: Two studies by a group 
of University of Michigan professors, who have received White House 
funding for other research on drug use, found random drug-testing in 
high schools provided no deterrence to drug use.

This is no surprise.

The logic behind the testing is that if students know they have a 
random chance of being tested, they will be scared off using drugs.

However, teenagers are less likely to reason this way than they are 
to assume they will never get caught.

Or, because the Supreme Court has ruled only students who participate 
in extracurricular activities can be subject to this testing, 
determined drug users may avoid testing by avoiding activities. This 
will have a negative effect on students' engagement with their school 
community while doing nothing to discourage drug use.

While minuscule in comparison with the money we are pouring into 
Iraq, $15 million could do a lot of good in other places.

It is sorely needed by the Katrina relief effort, and it would match 
the Bush administration's initial pledge of aid to Asian countries 
devastated by the 2004 tsunami.

It could pay for textbooks, higher teacher salaries, or better school 
facilities. Any of these options would surely have a more positive 
effect on society than random drug tests. Meanwhile, programs that 
actually can combat drug use in America are struggling for funding.

It makes more sense to fund programs that cut the drug trade off at 
the source than to chase after high-schoolers who may be smoking pot. 
And because harder drugs, such as cocaine or methamphetamines, leave 
a user's system within a few days, marijuana users will be the primary target.

Who is more dangerous to society and deserves more money and 
attention from the authorities: people cooking up huge batches of 
methamphetamines in barns or high-school sophomores smoking a joint 
in their basements?

Bush's proposal is a public-relations tool for politicians who want 
to promote themselves as being tough on drugs.

Drug-prevention strategies that actually work are more nuanced and 
logistical and can't be easily summarized in a 30-second campaign ad. 
Instead, this administration is dramatizing fears about drugs in 
schools - despite the fact that surveys show that drug use by 
high-school students is actually declining.

Random drug testing is needless, as well as useless.

This program is a waste of money and resources, and it will only 
increase antagonism and hostility between students and 
administrators, rather than combating the very real problems of drug 
use and America's education system.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman