NO MAGIC BULLET

RANDOM DRUG TESTING IS AN UNLIKELY CURE-ALL FOR TEEN ABUSES

Drug abuse is a plague, and the Valley is at special risk. With the
Mexican border nearby and transportation to other parts of the country
easy, we live in a major distribution center for everything from
heroin to marijuana.

After long experience, we know there's no quick-and-easy cure. And yet
it's still tempting to seize on a new strategy as the magic bullet.

Random drug testing in schools is the latest one. Used correctly, in a
limited and voluntary way, it has a place on the shelf among our
approaches to drug abuse. But it's far from a cure-all and must be
employed cautiously.

Paradise Valley School District randomly tests high school athletes
each year, checking out 400 to 500 students at a total cost of
$20,000. The district emphasizes that this isn't a disciplinary
"gotcha" program, but a prevention tool. If students test positive,
parents are notified but not police.

Paradise Valley, which started testing in 1991 to head off steroid use
in athletics, counts the testing a success because only a handful of
students test positive, and that's usually because of approved
prescription medications.

Now Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon wants more Phoenix schools to use
testing to fight illicit drug use among teens. He's teaming up with
Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley, who is offering $120,000
(seized, appropriately, in drug busts). The money would go to expand
testing in the Paradise Valley district and to launch pilot programs
in at least five other Phoenix school districts.

Random drug testing in athletics is not an issue. It's become routine
at all levels, up to professional. The health and safety of players -
as well as fair play in the case of doping to enhance performance -
make this a justifiable intrusion on all participants.

The case is a lot weaker, though, for testing the general student
population.

Even though the results are reported to parents, not law enforcement,
broad-based drug testing pushes schools into cop mode. It could erode
the trust that's part of a good education.

Supporters of school testing are floating the idea of offering parents
a chance to sign their children up for voluntary testing. They contend
that parents would then have a new opening to discuss drugs with their
kids.

Yes, frank discussions are important. Parents who are engaged with
their children's lives, who ask where they're going and what they're
doing, play a crucial role in fighting drug abuse. But telling your
kids that you want them tested for drugs could boomerang: The
conversation is likely to turn into a nasty and counterproductive
argument over trust.

Gordon is right in seeing the threat of drugs. It's highly disturbing
that elementary school students are experimenting. But we urge him to
reconsider broad-based testing. The initiative might avoid legal
challenges by being strictly voluntary, but it could cause as many
problems as it solves.

Gordon took an important step last month in appointing the Phoenix
Substance Abuse Prevention Commission, headed by former Phoenix Mayor
Paul Johnson, to evaluate the best strategies for combating substance
abuse.

We need this kind of analysis of existing programs, with an eye to
accountability and best practices.

The commission will recommend how Phoenix can collaborate with the
federal government in the recently announced "25 Cities
Initiative."

U.S. drug czar John Walters, who was in town to discuss the
initiative, recognizes that we have to go after demand as well as
supply. As he emphasized, it makes far more sense to treat drug users
than punish them.

The goal of random testing, as well, is to get drug-abusing students
to face up to their problem and to seek counseling or medical help.
Yet, as Romley is the first to say, funding for treatment is
perennially short.

If we are looking for places to put our resources, that should be
right at the top of the list.