Doctors say don't drug test kids

This is really good news. the American Academy of Pediatrics came out against drug testing kids. "[U]pdating its decade-old policy statement on the issue, said screening for illicit drugs is a complicated process prone to errors and cheating, and has not been shown to curtail youngsters’ drug use."

They note "drug testing creates a counterproductive climate of “resentment, distrust and suspicion” between children and their parents or school administrators" and false positives are common. Not to mention teenagers are not so stupid they can't find ways to beat the test on the internets. But this is the most important point they make.

In addition, several illegal drugs are undetectable in urine more than 72 hours after use, and standard tests do not detect often abused substances such as alcohol, Ecstasy and inhalants. Some youngsters may respond to testing by avoiding drugs such as marijuana and instead abuse less-detectable, but more dangerous, drugs, the statement said.

Everybody wants to protect their kids from drug abuse and speaking as a parent who raised a drug free kid, I'm telling you the only way to protect them is to talk to them honestly and make sure they believe if they screw up and find themselves in trouble, they can come to you for help and won't be punished for it. Then you have to -- and this is the really hard part -- trust them to make the right choices.

Random drug testing to scare them into compliance is simply not going to build that trust. It's going to imply you don't trust them and they're more likely to act out their inevitable teenage rebellion by trying drugs.