DRUG TESTING PITFALLS

John Walters, President Bush's "drug czar," is using the tragedy of
young people dying from use of "cheese" heroine to promote his
current favorite program: random, suspicionless drug testing of all
students. (See Thursday news story "Drug czar praises testing by
Texas school districts.")

Walters' grants will redirect $1.67 million in Department of
Education funds to test kits, test administrators and laboratories.
Students must miss class time to be tested. Schools risk being sued
in case of error.

The largest study of student drug testing ever done -- 76,000
students -- was conducted by the University of Michigan's Institute
for Social Research. It found no difference in illegal drug use
between students in schools that test and those in schools that do not.

Parents are free to test their children if they suspect drug use.
Their classmates shouldn't have to pay for the tests with larger
class sizes, fewer teachers, fewer counselors, fewer coaches, less
equipment and less time in class.

Drug testing programs neither improve students' education nor help
them make good choices about drug use.

- -- Suzanne Wills,Drug Policy Forum of Texas,Dallas