Experience, Research Show Testing Doesn't Work

Schoolwide drug testing is unlikely to reduce adolescent drug use, and may even put youths at greater risk than prevention programs that are less controversial, less invasive and less expensive.

Ironically, drug testing does deter students, especially those most at risk for using drugs, from participating in extracurricular activities and athletics -- some of the most important tools we have to keep kids off the streets and off drugs.

Educators, substance abuse professionals and parents know that from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., just after school lets out, students are most at risk for using alcohol and drugs. It is crucial that schools not only offer a variety of after-school activities for students, but encourage students to participate.

Student drug testing, however, proposed by a handful of school districts and upheld last year by the Supreme Court, erects an unnecessary barrier to student participation in extracurriculars and athletics. Students who are most at risk for using drugs are the very students who will be least likely to subject themselves to drug tests so they can participate in these programs.

For these and other practical reasons, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the nation's leading organization devoted to children's health and safety, opposed mandatory student drug testing in a friend-of-the-court brief to the U.S. Supreme Court last year. Joining the pediatricians was the National Education Association and other leading groups devoted to child welfare. (The full legal brief filed by AAP and NEA can be found at www.drugtestingfails.org.)

Many school boards and school board members across the country also oppose student drug testing. The Guymon Public School District in Oklahoma, for example, abandoned their student drug testing program after they found that it simply did not work.

Scot Dahl, vice president of the Guymon School District's school board, told the Amarillo Globe-News: "Our reason was, how many kids are not going out to extracurricular activities because they're afraid of being tested? If they're not in school, they'd be out on the streets. If we could pull more kids in extracurricular activities where there's a little more supervision, then they wouldn't be on the streets where they can pick up drug habits."

Parents demand input

Most educators reject drug testing of students in favor of investing in meaningful and engaging extracurricular activities.

Parents, too, are deeply skeptical about having their children drug-tested at school. Many believe that requiring school officials to administer drug tests usurps parents' important role in preventing drug abuse.

When the Dublin, Ohio, school district abandoned its drug testing program in favor of hiring a counselor for the students, parent Thalia Johannsen, whose three sons underwent 10 drug tests during the previous two years, told The Columbus Dispatch: "We [parents] are the ones who are responsible for our children, and we need to be part of the solution."

Johannsen applauded her school board's decision to stop drug testing because she had witnessed firsthand the detrimental effects of such testing.

As the parent of a teenager, I agree, and deplore that draconian policies such as drug testing are so readily implemented without knowing if they work.

Study: not a deterrent

Scientific data supports the experience of educators, health professionals and parents. In April 2003, the most comprehensive study to date of student drug testing was published in the Journal of School Health. This federally funded study of 76,000 high school students concluded that student drug testing does not deter student drug use. The study found no statistical difference in drug use rates among schools that had drug testing policies and those that did not.

Student drug testing is not a sound drug prevention strategy. Even worse, it may be counterproductive to young people's health.

But what, then, can we do to prevent destructive adolescent drug use? Several positive steps will help:

• Students are least likely to use drugs if they have trusting relationships with adults, peers and others they can turn to with questions about drug use. Schools should encourage students to participate in activities that hold the most promise for developing those relationships.
• Teachers and other adults should learn how to identify drug and alcohol use; once they are able to do that, they should engage students about their drug use in a non-confrontational fashion.
• School officials need to distinguish between student drug use that is experimental and drug use that is "chaotic," and must address these different situations using tools and resources tailored to individual student needs. Individuals who experiment with drugs usually only use them once or twice. Individuals who are "chaotic" drug users are usually compulsive or obsessive, and their lives are narrowly focused on drugs, often with a great deal of loss in other areas of their life.
• Schools should offer in-school drug and alcohol counseling for students who have been identified as problematic users.
• Finally, school officials should develop honest, science-based drug education programs that put the safety of students first. This kind of approach recognizes that teenagers experiment with drugs, and that it is important to provide them with credible information about drug use. It also recognizes that abstinence-only curricula, such as DARE, have been shown not to work. (For more information, see: www.safety1st.org.)

Schools across the country should not hesitate to "just say no" to student drug testing and say "yes" to proven -- and less costly -- programs that work.

Dr. Marsha Rosenbaum directs the Safety First project of the Drug Policy Alliance in San Francisco. A medical sociologist, she has written books and scholarly articles on drug use, addiction, drug treatment, and drug-using women.