TESTING OF STUDENTS ONE WAY TO KEEP DRUGS OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS

I have been more than a casual observer of the federal government's
attempts to curb drug abuse throughout the past two decades. If I have
learned anything from my time as a consultant to the U.S. Justice
Department, it is that drug abuse is a community problem and ongoing
grass-roots efforts at the local level are critical to bringing about change.

The outpouring of community concern about opiate abuse that I have seen on
the North Shore in the past few months has given me great cause for
optimism. It has also given me a fierce desire to change the culture that
permits and ignores the tragedy of drug abuse in our schools and
communities. I want to see the promise of this moment realized.

In the coming months, our administration will be working to introduce a
number of drug prevention and intervention efforts, including increased
access to drug treatment, longer school days, access to after-school
activities, and help for those students who are struggling to stay in
school I began my career as a criminologist in 1986, writing books and
papers on drug policy for the Reagan Justice Department during the "Just
Say No" years. The topics I was assigned to research began innocuously
enough with how to best prosecute "head shops" - places where drug
paraphernalia is sold, many of which were at that time trendy purveyors of
rolling papers and everything countercultural.

Where I expected to find sales of black lights and pipes, I discovered that
the newest fad at these head shops was something unfamiliar - tiny glass
vials with colorful caps. These little bottles soon became the symbol of
the powerful addiction of crack cocaine. In the early 1990s, crack
addiction gripped the nation, fueled the homicide rate, filled our prisons
and destroyed a generation of inner-city youths.

At the height of the crack epidemic, I was asked by the federal government
to recommend ways to process drug cases faster. There were simply so many
crack dealers that no prosecutor and no court could keep up. I remember
sitting in a gloomy courtroom in Seattle where prosecutors revoked parole
on re-offenders so quickly they could process 30 in half an hour.
Defendants flew through the courtroom at dizzying speed. I was supposed to
be impressed with this efficiency, but instead I found myself deeply
skeptical. There was movement, but little progress. Then something
happened. There was a shared realization that no matter how many young men
were put in prison for drug sales, no matter how many you could process in
an hour, there would always be more - and even younger - children willing
to take their place on the street corner selling drugs. In a few cities,
people had begun to step back and ask how communities could work together
to prevent this shameful waste of life and talent. The community policing
movement - the best criminal justice idea to come out of the 1990s -
succeeded in empowering neighborhoods, tenant organizations, and church
groups to take back their streets and free buildings from the drug trade.
Boston was at the forefront of the development of this new approach and
became an example for the nation. The police were partners in turning the
tide; but they could not have done it without the help of community leaders
and a resolve on the part of the man on the street that enough was enough.
As we face the facts that heroin and OxyContin addiction is creating as
much devastation in our suburban cities and towns as crack cocaine did in
the inner cities in the 1990s, we must remember that community mobilization
and parental involvement are the strongest tools we have. I have been
enormously encouraged to see the record public attendance at forums
discussing opiate abuse in Salem, Beverly and surrounding towns. Essex
County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett, Sheriff Frank Cousins, Salem
schools Superintendent Herb Levine and the Eagle-Tribune newspapers have
all provided critical leadership.

But the key to success will be translating the shared concern expressed at
those meetings into action.

Last week, I attended an informational summit on voluntary random drug
testing in schools, hosted by Mayor Fred Kalisz of New Bedford and the
Office of National Drug Control Policy. Superintendent Levine and his son,
a recovering OxyContin addict, spoke to the crowd of more than 100
educators and municipal officials to put a human face on the epidemic.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that random drug testing of students who
participate in sports or intramural extracurricular activities is
constitutional. Mayor Kalisz is proposing a purely voluntary program
relying on parental consent. Whatever approach is used, the intent of drug
testing is never to punish or prosecute the child, only to provide help in
the form of counseling or drug treatment. Perhaps, even more importantly,
the existence of random drug testing has been shown to give kids who don't
want to use drugs a socially acceptable reason to "Just Say No."

Test scores in schools with drug testing improve for all students. All
children learn better in a drug-free environment.

The Romney administration will not unilaterally impose drug testing in
schools, but we will be there to stand beside communities that choose that
route. The key to success will be open discussion and debate within the
community among parents, educators, treatment professionals and local
officials to determine if drug testing is right for the community.

Whatever we do, success will depend on the parents' willingness to tackle
these tough subjects at home and educators being as brave as Superintendent
Levine. Together, we have a chance to turn this epidemic around. Kerry
Healey of Beverly is lieutenant governor of the commonwealth.