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Pull the plug on drug tests

They say great minds think alike, so I love it when the big players speak the same way I do, even when they are so much more articulate. The UPI's Outside View, posted this excellent op-ed by Paul Armentano, senior policy analyst for the NORML Foundation in Washington. He says it all on the folly of student drug testing.

Despite the [Bush] administration's claim that mandatory drug testing curbs adolescent drug use, a recent federal study of 76,000 students by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research paints a far different picture.

According to the study's findings, published in the Journal of School Health, there is no difference in the level of illegal drug use between students in schools that test for drugs and those in schools that do not.

...Despite this poor performance, approximately 20 percent of U.S. secondary schools carry out some form of drug testing among their student populations. If the Bush administration has its way, this percentage will rise dramatically in coming years. But Congress and school administrators would be better advised to abandon the policy all together.

He notes well that the policy is not only absurdly expensive but also discourages students from participating in extra-curricular activities that would do far more to deter drug abuse.

"Without such engagement in healthy activities, adolescents are more likely to drop out of school, become pregnant, join gangs, pursue substance abuse and engage in other risky behaviors."

But the bottom line is no one should be treated with such disrespect, especially our children.

Suspicionless student drug testing is a humiliating, invasive practice that runs contrary the principles of due process. It compels teens to submit evidence against themselves and to forfeit their privacy rights as a necessary requirement for attending school. Rather than presuming our school children innocent of illicit activity -- as statistically, the overwhelming majority of them are -- until proven guilty, this policy presumes them guilty until they prove themselves innocent. Is this truly the message the Bush administration wishes to send to America's young people?

It's sure not the message I want to send.

[Link via Talk Left]