MIAMI STUDENTS FACE NEW KIND OF TEST - FOR DRUGS

MIAMI - If Joaquin Lassus wasn't stoned, he wasn't happy.

He lied. He cheated. He stole whatever he could to get his drugs. He was
just 11 years old.

"If I wasn't high, no one could rest," said Lassus, now 18 and a recovering
addict. "I couldn't live without drugs. They controlled me. They were me."

Like many young people, Lassus said he first was exposed to marijuana and
cocaine at school. The supply was abundant, teachers were oblivious and
kids took full advantage.

Said Lassus: "There was no one watching."

Not any longer.

Miami-Dade County school officials recently approved a drug-testing program
that supporters hope will identify kids with habits or will keep them from
trying drugs in the first place.

THE ISSUES

Debates are taking place in classrooms, school yards, cafeterias and
student newspapers. The arguments, for and against, are far-reaching.

Should the school district have the right to intrude on a student's
personal life? Do adults shoulder the responsibility for ensuring the
health and welfare of children, even students of high-school age?

Will results be skewed because those students not involved with drugs will
be the first to volunteer?

Who should decide whether a student enrolls: the parent or the student?

Although parents have the option of signing up their children, students
have the right to reject the urinalysis. School officials have allotted
$200,000 to test up to 5,000 students in grades 9 through 12.

"I wouldn't sign up for it, because I'm not involved in drugs," said Risa
Berrin, 18, a senior at Palmetto High who is managing editor of the school
newspaper.

IN THE INTEREST OF THE CHILD

Officials pushing the program believe the threat of random tests will
become a powerful tool in steering teens away from illegal drugs.

"We're talking about minors here, not adults," said school-board member
Renier Diaz de la Portilla, who sponsored the measure and is seeking to
make the policy even tougher by making it mandatory for all students whose
parents consent.

"A lot of these kids, if you would ask them if they should drive before 15,
or drink before 21, they would say yes," he said.

"But our society doesn't give them those rights, because we're trying to
protect them. We believe parents should be entrusted to make decisions in
the best interest of their child."

DRUGS `TOOK ME TO MY KNEES'

Diaz de la Portilla points to young people like Lassus to strengthen his
argument that schools should play a bigger role in identifying children
before they start on a path of destruction.

For seven years, Lassus, once a promising youngster whose parents brought
him to Miami to escape communist Cuba, lived on the brink. He spent much of
his teen years in and out of jail and treatment centers.

Once, when he couldn't steal to buy a high, he tried to kill himself.

"Those drugs got to me, took me to my knees," said Lassus, who believes he
probably never would have tried drugs had the threat of a test existed.

`DRUGS ARE RAMPANT'

When asked how available drugs are, most students agreed they could easily
get them.

"Drugs are rampant," Randy Mills, 17, a student at Southridge High, said
matter-of-factly.

"Every other person is doing it, or has done it - pot, acid, heroin. It's
overwhelming."

Still, many students publicly oppose the new policy, as reflected by
scathing headlines from student newspapers:

- -- "Drug Testing in Schools: A Violation of Rights."

- -- "Drug testing excludes students from Fourth Amendment. Despite
Controversy, Supporters Anticipate 10 Percent of Students to Participate."

"We're not just some teenagers who feel like it's us against the world; a
lot of kids have some real significant concerns about this," said Jesse
Miller, 17, a senior at Palmetto High and editorial-page editor of the
student newspaper.

"Why should they be allowed to test us if there is no probable cause?" he
asked. "My problem is that it assumes initial guilt of a student, like all
teenagers are doing drugs. That just isn't true."

MARIJUANA, COCAINE USE UP

But national figures released in December back up theories by supporters of
the Miami-Dade drug-testing policy that high-school students are vulnerable.

A national study conducted by University of Michigan researchers late last
year found an increasing number of 10th- through 12th-graders nationwide
had tried marijuana. Cocaine use by high-school seniors increased, and
daily cigarette use among seniors is at the highest level since 1979, the
report found.

Lassus realizes how close he came to becoming a statistic. He has been
clean for eight months. Last week, he graduated from a six-month
substance-abuse program. The same day, he received his GED - first steps to
a new life.