STUDY FLUNKS DRUG TESTING

Drug testing in schools does not deter student drug use any more that doing
no screening at all, the first large-scale study on the subject has found.

The U.S. Supreme Court has twice empowered schools to test for drugs -
first among student athletes in 1995, then last year for those in other
extracurricular activities. Both times, it cited the role that screening
plays in combating substance abuse as a rationale for impinging on whatever
privacy rights students might have.

But the new federally financed study of 76,000 students nationwide, by for
the largest do date, found that drug use is just as common in schools with
testing as in those without it.

"It suggest that there really isn't an impact from drug testing as
practiced," Lloyd D. Johnson, a study researcher from the Universituy of
Michigan, said. "It's the kind of intervention that doesn't win the hearts
and minds of children." - New York Times