Pubdate: Thu, 13 Jan 2005
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2005 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact:  http://www.boston.com/globe/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Kathleen Burge
Related: Index -- Special on Opiate Use (Salem News) -- 
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n042/a05.html

SALEM SCHOOLS CHIEF PROPOSES RANDOM DRUG TESTS  FOR SOME STUDENTS

Salem's school superintendent has said he will form a task force  to 
investigate how the school district can carry out random drug testing 
of  students who participate in sports and other extracurricular 
activities,  according to The Salem News.

Superintendent Herbert Levine said the region's epidemic of heroin and 
prescription drug abuse warrants the push for drug testing. "We can't just 
sit back any longer and expect this thing is going to go away, because it 
doesn't," Levine told the paper.

Sarah Wunsch, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of 
Massachusetts, said her group would challenge any plan to randomly test 
public school students for drugs.

"I think . . . they shouldn't go down that path," Wunsch said. "It's 
probably going to be found unconstitutional in Massachusetts if they tried 
to propose it." Levine made his announcement Monday at Salem High School, 
at a forum on the region's drug epidemic. The event was attended by more 
than 1,200 people. Levine's son Joel, 20, also spoke about his own recovery 
from an addiction to OxyContin. Levine acknowledged that the testing plan 
would not be popular among students. "Let them be upset, let them moan and 
complain," The Salem News quoted Levine as saying. "But let them live."

Law enforcement officials said there were 39 confirmed cases of fatal 
opiate overdoses in Essex County last year.

Meanwhile, law enforcement officials are working to increase drug abuse 
awareness. Today, Essex District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett and Sheriff 
Frank Cousins will host a meeting on the region's drug epidemic. The US 
Supreme Court has said schools can require drug tests for students who 
participate in extracurricular activities, but the Massachusetts Supreme 
Judicial Court has not considered the issue. In other cases, the SJC has 
occasionally ruled that the state's constitution offers greater  protection 
of individual rights than the US  Constitution.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth