EFFICACY OF RANDOM DRUG TESTING PROGRAMS QUESTIONED

What do the American Academy of Pediatrics, The Association for
Addiction Professionals and the National Association of Social Workers
have in common?

Each organization opposes the random drug testing of middle and
highschool students.

The American Academy of Pediatrics reaffirmed its stance opposing
random student drug testing twice in 2007. In March the AAP said,
"There is little evidence of the effectiveness of school-based drug
testing." In December the AAP concluded, "Physicians should not
support drug testing in schools . It has not yet been established that
drug testing does not cause harm."

Nevertheless, random drug-testing programs have been touted at all
levels of community and government as a sure-fire way to deter kids
from using drugs.

According to the Idaho State Department of Education, during the
2006-07 school year, 36 of the state's 115 public school districts
spent $73,812 on random testing as part of their drug-prevention and
education curricula. Another 33 districts did random testing through
programs such as Idaho Drug Free Youth.

Support for the programs came from the Safe and Drug Free Schools
Program, funded in part by $5.5 million in state tobacco and lottery
tax revenue and $1.68 million in federal grants.

"For school districts to access these funds, they must design a
comprehensive substance abuse and violence prevention program that
meets the principles of effectiveness and must be approved by the
State Department of Education," said Melissa McGrath, a department
spokeswoman. "It is not allowable to implement a random drug-testing
program in isolation. It must be part of a much broader prevention
strategy."

Not only are researchers questioning the effectiveness of student drug
testing, but civil libertarians also question its fairness.

"We are opposed to random drug testing. It is unnecessary, unfair and
does not respect student privacy rights," said Jack VanValkenburgh,
executive director of the Idaho American Civil Liberties Union.
"Instead of being innocent until proven guilty, students, in order to
participate in sports and other activities, must prove they are innocent."

VanValkenburgh said testing often occurs without cause.

"Even when there is no suspicion of drug use, students are tested.
It's just wrong," he said.

However, George Bacon, chairman for Southern Idaho Partners Against
Drugs, disagrees.

"Students whose parents don't sign up their kids to be tested just
don't want to know that their kids are doing drugs," Bacon said.
"Randomly testing for drug use helps dissuade young people from
ruining their lives."

But that remains to be seen.

According to study results released by the Oregon Health and Science
University in October 2007, random drug testing was found to be
unreliable in keeping teen athletes from using.

A press release about the study explained that investigators from OSHU
performed the two-year trial, which was the first-ever prospective
randomized clinical trial to assess the deterrent effect of drug and
alcohol testing among high school athletes.

Researchers found that students who underwent random drug testing did
not differ in their self-reported drug use compared with students at
neighboring schools without drug testing.

The study suggests that students subjected to random drug screens were
more likely to report an "increase in some risk factors for future
substance use," in comparison to those at schools without the testing.

"This was a state-of-the art collection and testing program that
exceeded those of typical testing programs," the study's lead
investigator, Linn Goldberg, wrote in a media release. "If this did
not show significant deterrent effects, less-sophisticated programs
are not likely to be more successful."

Bacon acknowledges that some organizations don't support randomly
testing students and says they are awaiting results from a similar
program in Alabama.

"If these statistics show (testing) does not work then we will take a
step back to find out if there is another way," Bacon said.

Nevertheless, SIPAD will soon ask students to voluntarily submit to
drug testing, and will reward those who stay clean. Like Idaho Drug
Free Youth, SIPAD, will be a student-led club.

"We support the idea of Idaho Drug Free Youth and getting the idea to
celebrate those who stay off drugs," Bacon said. "We want to give
students another opportunity to steer clear of drugs."