DRUG TESTS WOULD NOT HAVE SAVED MY FRIEND

"Treat a child like a criminal From the day that he is born And you're
gonna reap just what you sow." - Ben Harper

When a good school friend died of a heroin overdose several years ago, I
wasn't the only one of his old mates to remember - particularly in those
first few sad days - that we had once shared a (different) illegal drug
together. In our final school years, we had often passed a precious joint
around our excited circle. We weren't much different, in other words, to
the estimated 52 per cent of teenagers who have tried marijuana before they
leave school.

Now, more than 10 years on from the days of the old schoolyard, I can look
around at my old friends and see what has become of them. All are lucky
enough to be working - as public relations consultants, university tutors,
army officers, waiters, engineers, television producers, ushers, musicians.
All drink alcohol regularly, and worry about it. Only a few use illegal
drugs, mostly marijuana and ecstasy (the latter only on special occasions).
They are all mildly happy, sometimes troubled, individuals. They are all,
though they would hate me saying so, upstanding members of the community.

And all of them must wonder, as I do, why one friend moved on to harder
drugs and became addicted to a drug that would kill him.

Would things have been different, I wonder, if our school had chosen to
conduct drug tests on students, similar to those now being implemented at a
number of prominent Melbourne private schools? My gut instinct says no.

For good or bad, my friend was addicted to the lifestyle he led when he was
in high school. I can't think of anything that would have stopped him
living the way he did. Had drug tests been introduced, he would have simply
put his mind to coming up with ways to beat the tests.

Ultimately, I think my friend would have accepted expulsion from school
rather than change his ways. This would have preserved the good name of the
school (which, let's face it, is one of the main reasons "exclusive"
schools are introducing drug testing in the first place), but it would not
have solved the problem; just moved it elsewhere.

This is not to say that I think drug testing at my school would have had no
effect. It may well have terrified me to such an extent that the next time
a joint came my way I'd have passed it on like a hot potato.

But it would have achieved this outcome only because, like all threats of
punishment, it works OK on those who feel they have something to lose. For
the people who have lost hope, who are having trouble seeing any meaning in
their lives - the very ones, in other words, most at risk of seeking out
harder drugs and greater thrills - such threats don't carry much weight.

So now I look at my friends and imagine how they might be different had we
been tested for drugs at school. And I can picture only negative
consequences. Submitting to a drug test would have inevitably made us feel
like criminals. And there's no greater self-fulfilling prophecy than if you
treat someone like a criminal eventually they will see the sense of
becoming one.

At a difficult age - when we were already struggling to form relationships
with parents, teachers and mentors - drug tests would have just given us
one more reason to not trust anyone in authority. It would have shattered
our fragile self-esteem, killed our sense of trust and made us believe the
world was even more cruel and unjust than we were beginning to suspect.

Drug testing in schools will fail to help the students who need help, and
scar the ones who have nothing wrong with them except a small case of
youthful rebellion.