Pubdate: Mon, 25 May 2009
Source: Sunshine Coast Daily (Australia)
Copyright: 2009 APN News & Media Ltd
Contact:  http://www.thedaily.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4590
Author: Alan Lander
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

DRUG TESTING IN SCHOOLS ENCOURAGED

Testing for cannabis use in Queensland secondary  schools could soon 
become a reality, Coast MP Peter  Wellington said.

The Nicklin independent MP said all 89 state MPs  supported his 
parliamentary motion to refer Drug Free  Australia's report, 
Cannabis: suicide, schizophrenia  and other ill-effects research 
paper, for  investigation.

Mr Wellington said the report showed "irrefutable"  evidence there 
was a connection for many people between  cannabis/marijuana use and 
mental illness.

"The report has frightening revelations, and mental  illness is a 
tsunami about to erupt," he said.

"The first issue it raises is: does the community  believe there is 
that connection; and if so what are we  going to do about it?"

Mr Wellington said the report's many recommendations  include "that 
drug testing in schools be encouraged,  giving a clear message that 
drug use including  cannabis, is not permitted. Many youngsters do 
not see  cannabis as a drug or that it will harm them," it  states.

Mr Wellington said media reports suggesting  drug-testing of 
six-year-olds at schools were incorrect  and sensationalist.

An outcry from civil libertarians was inevitable.

"But remember when we brought in random breath-testing  -- there was 
an outcry about people's freedoms then,"  he said.

The push has angered Queensland Council of P & C  president Margaret 
Black, who said while the  association agreed with nearly all the 
report's  recommendations, testing at schools was not on.

"The (report's) recommendations do align with our  policies on drugs 
in schools -- except for number  nine," Ms Black said.

"It appears to be focussed on the students in the  schools -- but 
what about the whole school community?

Large-scale drug-testing is also expensive "and this  expense should 
be used to target the drug traffickers",  she said.

Ms Black said random breath testing was not comparable  to student 
drug-testing.

"This is a condition of one's driver's licence, which  is held on the 
condition you do not drink and drive,"  she said.

"We believe energy and effort should be put into  education and 
prevention and targeting the  traffickers."

But Mr Wellington said he was determined to push the issue.

"What concerns me is that so many people in our  community seem to 
have the view that marijuana use is  not a problem," he said.

"They view it as a recreational drug which is not a  problem and that 
everyone does it."

Report recommendations

1. Preventative drug education in both primary and  secondary 
schools, including new research into the  harmful effects of cannabis 
on the developing brain,  suicide, drug-induced psychosis, 
schizophrenia and depression.

2. National media, similar to the "Bloody Idiot"  alcohol campaign.

3. Clear cannabis prevention policies in all schools.

4. Police implement drug blitzes, target users,  plantation and 
hydroponically grown cannabis,  trafficking, financing, and/or 
selling drugs to  children.

5. All professionals in drug and alcohol fields to  strongly 
discourage any cannabis use by those whom they  counsel or to whom 
they provide treatment for drug  related problems.

6. QUIT campaign.

7. Greater penalties to prosecute suppliers and  traffickers of drugs 
to children.

8. Clear messages about the effects of cannabis on the  young body 
from the Commonwealth.

9. Address the abuse of illicit substances in  Aboriginal 
communities, in particular cannabis.

10. Drug testing in schools be encouraged.

11. Roadside testing.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom