LAST THING YOUNG PEOPLE NEED IS DRUG DEBATE

IF ANY measure is certain to make schools feel less like institutions
of education and more like internment centres where children are sent
for the crime of being young, it is the introduction of compulsory
drug-testing. Provided that children do not turn up at school
actually high on any particular drug, it is none of the school's
business whether they take them.

I find it hard to believe that I must iterate this, but schools exist
solely to churn out young adults who stand a chance of finding
employment. It is not their place to enforce laws which are
irrelevant to education. That is the role of the police.

Picture one young person who drinks and dabbles in the use of illegal
drugs at weekends yet gets A grades in his Highers without much
effort -- this is not so fanciful as this newspaper's more
conservative readers may think: I was one such pupil and I knew
others. Picture another young man, who never takes illegal drugs or
even drinks alcohol, but struggles to pass every exam he sits.

Which is the better pupil? Which is the greater credit to the school?
Does it even matter? For those of you scratching your heads or
wringing your hands, the answer is No.

Duncan McLean, Stirling