Drug testing does more harm than good

This is why random student drug testing is such a horrible policy.

Seventeen-year-old Mike, an upstanding senior at Shallowater High School near Lubbock Texas, had been on a number of medications for allergies as well as some antibiotics?one of which his doctor later confirmed could cause a false positive for cocaine?when his school randomly tested him. The school failed to properly follow their own policies by neglecting to ask Mike to list the medications he was on. To make matters worse, South Plains Compliance, the drug testing company hired by the school to administer the tests, maintained that their procedures were 100% accurate despite the extenuating circumstances.

His mother subsequently had him tested several times privately with negative results. The school didn't budge and the kid was singled out for random testing on a regular basis. The stress understandably didn't help his studies and in the end he withdrew from extracurricular activities altogether. His life is basically ruined by a flawed test and for what? Studies have shown the whole testing program to be ineffective in deterring substance abuse in the actual users. As Drug Policy Alliance notes:

Drug testing has recently always been an easy anti-drug sound bite for the White House. But stories like Lori's cannot be ignored. Their experience is a prime example of how student testing breaks the trust between young people and adults and drives students away from the extracurricular activities that keep kids out of trouble.

John Walters is on a taxpayer funded tour promoting this fiasco of a policy. DPA in response is holding summits to counter his propaganda. If you live in Pennsylvania, Missouri, Oregon or Texas check out their tool kit with posters, talking points and other ways to take action.