Pubdate: Tue, 17 May 2005 Source: Gloucester Daily Times (MA) Copyright: 2005 Essex County Newspapers, Incorporated. Contact: http://www.salemnews.com/email/#Editor-g Website: http://www.gloucestertimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/169 Author: Dan Touhy Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) STATE OFFERS FUNDING TO SCHOOLS FOR DRUG TESTING BOSTON - The state will give schools $100,000 to launch voluntary student drug testing as part of a new strategy released yesterday to combat drug and alcohol abuse. The testing is billed as the linchpin for redoubled prevention efforts to head off epidemic levels of drug abuse, notably OxyContin and heroin abuse. Salem School Superintendent Herbert Levine, who joined Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey in unveiling the plan, said students would have to take the tests if a district voluntarily decides to implement the program. He recounted his experience in helping his 20-year-old son battle an OxyContin addiction. And he said his son said testing would have scared him away from taking opiates. "I don't think that student testing is necessarily the answer to all of the problem," Levine said. "But it is an answer, it's another arrow in the quiver for us in education to be able to help parents." Healey said it would target a trend among younger and younger students trying and taking drugs. She said 12.9 years old is the average age in Massachusetts for someone first using marijuana. However, the Massachusetts chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said there is no evidence student drug testing works. "What is voluntary about it?" asked Sarah Wunsch, staff attorney for ACLU-Massachusetts. "The kids may have some rights here that would be violated." Wunsch said the state would be better off spending more on education and treatment, including a needle exchange program. The plan concentrates on four areas: prevention, early intervention, enforcement and accountability. It would be funded through a $9.1 million supplemental budget bill the Romney administration filed earlier this year. The supplemental budget would help the state leverage $14.5 million in matching federal money. Healey said an additional 6,000 to 8,000 people would get detox services, out of an estimated 40,000 who now need services but do not seek or get services. In 2004, 82,440 people received publicly funded treatment services. The plan includes $50,000 per school in targeted communities for police resource officers. In deference to local control, Healey said the state would provide the support should districts and communities want to launch a drug-testing program. "We want science-based programming, things that we know work," Healey said. "We will not be reinventing the wheel here. We're going to be doing things that we know worked in other communities." Levine said districts could make the testing acceptable or even attractive without making it punitive. He said a voluntary drug-testing program could be launched as early as 2006, though he will not be around to see it because he is scheduled to retire June 30. "Some folks have an issue with student drug testing under any circumstances," Levine said. "There are others who would support it under any circumstances. What we're trying to do is find a balance." Prevention now accounts for only about 11 percent of the $250 million spent annually on substance abuse services in Massachusetts. The plan draws extensively from information gathered over the past year, when Healey traveled the state and met with school officials, parents, health care advocates and law enforcement officials. Some of the information came from regional round-table discussions led by Essex County District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett. "We welcome any state support in coordinating ways to choke off these drugs," Blodgett said last night. He said early education and intervention are increasingly important in combating drug use and abuse among young people. Healey praised current enforcement efforts, but indicated the state could provide better coordination through the interagency council. The plan also calls for expanded treatment services for incarcerated individuals and a real-time response network at hospitals to better identify the drug abuse problem and numbers of overdoses. Gov. Mitt Romney yesterday signed an executive order to establish an Interagency Council on Substance Abuse and Prevention, to be led by Healey, to coordinate efforts among 13 state agencies that now provide services. Romney also filed legislation to stiffen penalties for those convicted of making or distributing methamphetamine. The bill would make amphetamines manufacture and trafficking a felony, subject to up to five years in prison and $20,000 in fines. Sen. Steven A. Tolman, D-Watertown, the chairman of the Legislature's new Committee on Mental Health and Substance Abuse, said methamphetamine is the next big battle facing Massachusetts after the OxyContin abuse. Tolman endorsed the new strategy and underscored his committee's support for prevention efforts. "The first step is getting the message out to the children: Do not try this drug, it is a suicide pact," Tolman said. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom