STUDY: DRUG TESTS FAIL TO CURB STUDENT USAGE

U.S. Survey's Results Surprised Researchers

Drug testing in schools does not deter student drug use, the first
large-scale study on the subject has found.

The Supreme Court has twice empowered schools to test for drugs -
first among student athletes in 1995, then last year for those in
other extracurricular activities. Both times, the court cited the role
that screening plays in combatting substance abuse as a rationale for
impinging on whatever privacy rights students might have.

But the new federally financed study of 76,000 students nationwide, by
far the largest to date, found that drug use is just as common in
schools with testing as in those without it.

"It suggests that there really isn't an impact from drug testing as
practiced," said Lloyd D. Johnston, a study researcher from the
University of Michigan.

The prevalence of drug use in schools that tested for drugs and those
that did not was so similar that it surprised the researchers, who
have been paid by the government to track student behavior for nearly
30 years and whose data on adolescent drug use is considered highly
reliable.

The study found that 37 percent of 12th-graders in schools that tested
for drugs said they had smoked marijuana in the last year, for
example, compared with 36 percent in schools that did not. In a
universe of tens of thousands of students, such a slight deviation is
statistically insignificant, and it means the results are essentially
identical, the researchers said.

Similarly, 21 percent of 12th-graders in schools with testing said
they had used other illicit drugs like cocaine or heroin in the past
year, while 19 percent of their counterparts in schools without
screening said they had done so.

The same basic pattern held true for every other drug and grade level
the study explored.

"Now there should be no reason for a school to impose an intrusive or
even insulting drug test when it's not going to do anything about
student drug use, " said Graham Boyd, a lawyer for the American Civil
Liberties Union who argued the case against drug testing before the
Supreme Court last year.

But other researchers contend the study may only prove schools do a
poor job of testing.

"That's like blaming antibiotics if you didn't take them properly, or
blaming the doctor who prescribed them," said Linn Goldberg, a
professor of medicine at Oregon Health and Science University, who
conducted a much more limited study on two Oregon high schools last
year. It found that intensive, Olympic-grade testing could reduce drug
use.

Most schools have shied away from drug testing. The Michigan study,
published last month in the Journal of School Health, found that only
18 percent of the nation's schools did any kind of screening from 1998
to 2001, most of them high schools.

The Michigan study drew on anonymous surveys from 30,000
eighth-graders, 23, 000 10th-graders and 23,000 12th-graders.

The Michigan study does not rule out the possibility that the most
vigilant schools do a better job of curbing drug use.

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LITTLE DIFFERENCE

The study looked at the testing policies of 722 middle and high schools, as
well as anonymous surveys from 30,000 eighth-graders, 23,000 sophomores and
23, 000 seniors.

- - Schools with drug tests

The study found that 37 percent of seniors said they had smoked marijuana
in the past year, and 21 percent said they had used other illicit drugs,
such as cocaine or heroin.

- - Schools without testing

The study found that 36 percent of seniors said they had smoked marijuana
in the past year, and 19 percent said they had used other illicit drugs.