RANDOM DRUG TESTS FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS TRIED NEXT MONTH

The Department of Health (DOH) will attempt next month to conduct
random drug testing among college students as part of programs to
eliminate drug addiction in the country.

Dr. Benjamin Reyes, the DOH's supervising officer for its anti-drug
abuse program, said they failed to implement the drug tests last year
because of strong resistance from college students, who said that
subjecting them to the tests would violate their human rights.

"We were not able to implement it. But we hope that come June, we'll
be able to start the implementation of testing," Reyes told The STAR.

Reyes said the students argued that there are new sets of officers in
their student councils and the officers have not been consulted about
the program.

"We'll conduct new rounds of consultation just to satisfy concerns if
that's what they want," he said.

The DOH intends to randomly test around 8,670 students in 25 schools
from each region nationwide.

Last year, the DOH found that almost 77,000 or 1.2 percent of 6.4
million high school students nationwide abused substances.

The situation was unveiled after the agency randomly tested 5,648 high
school students for drugs.

Marijuana appeared to be the substance most abused by students,
followed by methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu.

A Dangerous Drugs Board survey in 1998 showed that there were 1.8
million drug addicts in the Philippines then while 1.6 million others
were casual users. The number of drug addicts and casual users,
however, is increasing by almost 100 percent every year.

Reyes said the program was meant to gauge the drug addiction problem
in schools and to formulate strategies to address the situation.

He added that the Commission on Higher Education had proposed that
drug tests be done on a voluntary basis.

"I don't think we can do that because that will defeat the purpose of
the drug testing. It's already in the law. Our efforts will go to
waste if we conduct it voluntarily," Reyes said.