BRITAIN WILL LET SCHOOLS DO RANDOM DRUG SEARCHES

LONDON (AP) -- Prime Minister Tony Blair said Sunday that British schools
will be given the power to carry out random drug testing on students.

In an interview with the News of the World newspaper, Blair said school
principals will have the right to either offer treatment to children caught
by the tests, expel them or report them to police.

''If heads (principals) believe they have a problem in their school then
they should be able to do random drug testing,'' Blair was quoted as saying
in the newspaper.

The government had disclosed earlier this year it was looking at new
guidelines on drugs in schools but Blair's comments were the first sign they
would extend to random testing.

The controversial plans were welcomed by the National Association of Head
Teachers but were condemned by opposition lawmakers and the civil liberty
campaigners.

David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers,
said the proposal would give teachers ''another weapon in their fight
against drugs being pushed or used in their schools.''

But opposition Liberal Democrat education spokesman Phil Willis said that
school officials should not be dealing with drug problems.

''Drug abuse is a major social problem, endemic across society,'' Willis
said. ''It should not be treated in isolation as a school problem, nor
should it be the responsibility of head teachers to test children.''

Barry Hughill, a spokesman for civil rights group Liberty, said he could not
understand how the new powers would help.

''I'm obviously not a teacher but I would have thought any school that's got
a drug problem is well aware it's got a drug problem. It doesn't need random
drug testing to tell it that,'' Hughill told BBC radio.

Blair's proposed initiative is similar to the drug testing program already
in place in schools across the United States.

At his State of the Union address in January, U.S. President George W. Bush
unveiled a plan to expand the existing $2 million program by increasing
funding to $23 million.

He added that drug use in high schools had declined by 11 percent in the
past two years.

The U.S. program has drawn sharp criticism from some parents, school
administrators and civil liberties activists.