DRUG TESTING TREATS SYMPTOMS

President's Funding Proposal For School Program Of Debatable Value.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, 1.4 million American teenagers currently require
treatment for drug abuse. The organization's findings also show that
those who avoid drug use during these formative years are far less
likely to grow into addicted adults.

With these facts in mind, President George W. Bush's proposed budget
for 2005 recommends increasing funding for student drug-testing to $25
million ? well above the current allocation of $2 million.

Random testing of students has been a hot topic in education since
1995, when the Supreme Court ruled that schools could test teams of
student athletes, even if individual players were not suspected. The
2002 decision in the case of Pottawatomie School District No. 92 v.
Lindsay Earls expanded this testing prerogative to all extracurricular
activities, not just sports. But the question of whether more funding
to test students involved in football, cheerleading or debate will
have any effect on drug abuse remains anything but decided.

The president hopes that random testing will deter drug abuse and give
students an easy "out" in the face of peer pressure. And the prospects
of being kicked off the football team may also lead students to make
better decisions. Proponents of the president's approach cite a study
by Ball State and Indiana University in which 73 percent of high
school principals reported a decrease in drug abuse after instituting
random testing programs.

On the other side of the debate, some studies show inconclusive
results, such as research at the University of Michigan that found
identical rates of drug use in schools that test and schools that do
not. Others object on moral or legal

grounds: The ACLU describes random testing as a violation of students'
Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure by
treating "all students as suspects." And in a brief provided during
the Earls case, the American Academy of Pediatrics pointed out that
"extracurricular involvement plays a role in protecting students from
substance abuse" and that depriving them of such alternatives would
only be counterproductive.

Regardless of the outcome of this debate, and the fate of the
president's budget in Congress, the best drug policy is set in
individual homes, among families. Adolescents between 6 and 12 say
their parents are their biggest influence to avoid drugs. Parents can
also be positive role models when it comes to America's two most
abused drugs - tobacco and alcohol.

According to Stephen Wallace, national chairman of Students Against
Destructive Decisions, "A surer bet may be some not-so-random drug
prevention at home."