Pubdate: Sun, 02 Dec 2007
Source: Record, The (Hackensack, NJ)
Copyright: 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.northjersey.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/44
Author: Andrea Alexander
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

TAXES MAY FUND PEQUANNOCK DRUG TESTS

PEQUANNOCK -- Local residents may have to cover the  costs next fall
for the school district's model drug  and alcohol testing program.

The district is in its final year of a three-year grant  from the U.S.
Department of Education that provided  $40,000 annually for the program.

The Board of Education would have to approve paying the  program costs
until additional grant money could be  found. Board President Megan
Hollberg said she is  "pretty confident" it would have support.

"I think we have had good results with it and it seems  to do what we
want to do: deter kids from drinking and  doing drugs," she said.

The grant pays for a program director and another  person to
administer the tests. The money also covers  the testing kits and
mailing. Some of the tests are  shipped to a lab for reading.

The district started testing students for drugs and  alcohol in the
2005-06 school year. Students who  participate in sports or
extracurricular activities or  drive to school are subject to the
random program.  Pequannock was also the first district in the state
to  test middle school students for drug use.

In February, the district added a more stringent  alcohol test to its
program. The test can detect on a  Monday whether a teenager had taken
a drink over the  weekend. The urine screening is for ethyl
glucuronide  (EtG), a residue of metabolized alcohol. From the start
of the program, the district also used a urine test to  detect drug
use -- and still does.

About 20 students picked randomly at Pequannock High  School were
tested last year with the EtG test. None  had alcohol in their
systems, program director John  Graf said. This year, the district has
tested 100  students, including some from the middle school. Some
have tested positive, but Graf declined to say how  many.

Before adopting the EtG test last year, the district  used a saliva
swab test to detect alcohol use. The test  could determine only
whether a student had been  drinking within a few hours. The EtG test
can detect  alcohol use within the last 80 hours.

"More kids use alcohol than any other drug, but we had  the least
effective tool," Graf said. "You are not  doing a lot to deter kids
if you are using a tool that  doesn't reach back and cover the time
period when they  were most likely to use."

The EtG test was controversial because readings also  can result from
use of products containing ethanol,  including hand sanitizers and
mouthwash. But the  district calibrated the test at a higher level so
it  would not detect such exposure, said Pequannock Valley  Middle
School Principal William Trusheim, who helped  develop the program.

Pequannock is one of two districts in the state that  use the test.
Middletown in Monmouth County also  adopted the test last year.

It appears the tests have had an impact on drug and  alcohol use in
Pequannock. Juniors and seniors reported  a 52 percent decline in high
drug and alcohol use  during the second year of the drug-testing
program. The  district plans to conduct another survey this month.

"These numbers are going in the right direction,"  Trusheim said. "We
want students to make a commitment  not to use."
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MAP posted-by: Derek