Pubdate: Sun, 08 Feb 2004
Source: Grand Forks Herald (ND)
Copyright: 2004 Grand Forks Herald
Contact:  http://www.northscape.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/513
Author: Stephen Wallace
Note: Wallace is national chairman and chief executive officer of SADD Inc. 
He has worked as a school psychologist and adolescent counselor.
Cited: Office of National Drug Control Policy www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov
Cited: Drug Policy Alliance www.drugpolicy.org
Cited: American Civil Liberties Union www.aclu.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

DRUG PREVENTION BEGINS AT HOME

BOSTON - President Bush's call for increased federal funding of school
drug testing programs already has reignited debate over the efficacy
and ethics of intrusive remedies for a country at war with drugs.
Given the easy availability of illegal substances and their widespread
use by teens, it's a debate worth watching.

Random drug testing in schools began with student athletes and a "pay
to play" philosophy holding that participation in sports is a
privilege extended on the condition of abstinence from substance use.
In a practice upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, this privilege
principle quickly migrated to other competitive activities, from
cheering to chess. And now, in its latest iteration, drug testing is
being applied more broadly to students enrolled in some private and
parochial schools.

The current debate, anchored on one side by conservatives and on the
other by civil libertarians, threads age-old arguments of privacy with
newfangled applications of technology poised to detect and designed to
deter. In the middle remain a vast number of "undecideds" and the
fundamental question of effectiveness. And here the data conflict.

* University of Michigan researchers found virtually identical rates
of drug use in the schools that have drug testing and the schools that
do not (although a study author concedes that one "could design a drug
testing program that could deter drug use").

* A Ball State University/Indiana University researcher reported
that 73 percent of Indiana high school principals with random drug
testing programs in their schools reported a decrease in drug usage
(compared with a period without such a program) among students subject
to the policy.

Supporters of random drug testing argue both the ethics (if we expect
students to study and test them to find out, can't we also expect them
to remain drug-free and test them to make sure?) and the outcomes (the
Office of National Drug Control Policy cites the results of drug
testing programs in Oregon and New Jersey as proof positive that they
work).

Detractors, on the other hand, claim that such programs are
ineffective as deterrents and fly in the face of civics classes on the
appropriate balance between authority and individual rights. In Making
Sense of Student Drug Testing, Why Educators are Saying No, the
American Civil Liberties Union and the Drug Policy Alliance maintain
that not only is testing ineffective in deterring young people from
using drugs, it also can undermine relationships of trust between
adults and children.

What seems to be lost in this debate is the perspective of those with
the most at stake: the students themselves. Encouragingly, most teens
(70 percent) say they are concerned about drug use. Yet,
understandably, many see drug testing as a violation, not so much of
civil liberties as much as of trust - at least absent some evidence of
wrongdoing. They also seem to doubt its saliency as a deterrent, even
when applied by Mom or Dad. In one Teens Today study, only 8 percent
of students said that testing by parents would be effective in keeping
them away from drugs, while 93 percent indicated that other parental
measures would be effective.

The good news in all of this is that young people recognize the
dangers of drug use and seem to share adults' urgency in finding
answers that keep teens safe. The better news is a solution that's
been right in front of us all along: parents who talk regularly with
their children about drugs.

According to Teens Today, adolescents in grades 6-12 say that parents
are their biggest influence not to use drugs. And the methods they
report as most effective are, perhaps, the simplest: Discuss the
dangers and explain the expectations. Indeed, teens who have open and
honest communication with their parents are more likely to avoid
drugs, to try to live up to their parents' expectations regarding drug
use and to say that their parents' methods of keeping them away from
drugs are effective. These teens also report that they are less likely
to use drugs when their parents make clear that such behavior won't be
tolerated.

Whatever the outcome of the spirited public discourse over random drug
testing in schools, a surer bet may be some not-so-random drug
prevention at home. Open communication and clear expectations already
are proven deterrents to drug use among teens - just ask them. So,
too, is good old-fashioned vigilance. After all, while the cat's away.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake