Suspicionless drug testing is increasingly used in the workplace and in schools throughout the country. Drug testing is an intrusive invasion of individual privacy, an ineffective determinant of an individual’s drug use, and can be a deterrent to open, honest communication and for students, participation in extracurricular activities or athletics.

Projects include:

Pottawatomie v. Earls: The United States Supreme Court decided in June of 2002 to allow suspicionless drug testing of all public high school students in the case Pottawatomie v. Earls. Drug Policy Alliance filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the American Academy of Pediatrics and other prominent national groups in the United States Supreme Court opposing the indiscriminate use of drug testing in schools.

Drug Testing Fails Our Youth: The Office of Legal Affairs created an advocacy tool for parents, caregivers and other adults concerned about their schools’ attempt to institute drug testing programs. The project, Drug Testing Fails Our Youth, provides these adults with advocacy tools to challenge drug testing programs and documents schools around the country that have either abandoned or overturned their drug testing programs.

Sweatpatch drug testing: The Office of Legal Affairs monitors the use of the sweatpatch method of drug testing, which has been shown to result in many false positives. To read more about the sweatpatch method of drug testing, click here.

Drug testing of welfare applicants: The 1996 welfare bill, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, permits states to drug test their welfare applicants as a prerequisite to receiving welfare benefits. Michigan was the only state that chose to enforce this law. Drug Policy Alliance filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the Sixth Circuit in a challenge to Michigan’s law. To read more about the case, click here.

More information on drug testing.