MEXICAN CHILDREN GET TESTED FOR DRUGS

Program Begins In Mexico City Despite Some Opposition

MEXICO CITY (AP)- A Mexico City middle school has started a pilot program
to test students for drugs via urine samples, a move that has drawn mixed
reactions, local media reported Tuesday.

Proponents of the tests - a group of parents, a conservative local
legislator and the school's administrators - said the program should be
extended to schools throughout Mexico, where drug use is still below U.S.
levels but is rising fast.

Recent programs in which student's backpacks were searched for weapons and
drugs were called ineffective and an invasion of privacy by critics and
human rights leaders worried new drug testing programs would unfairly
target poor and Indian children.

"They are going into large schools to confirm what these oppressive
associations already believe: If you're young and you're poor you're
automatically a criminal," Enoe Uranga Munoz, president of Mexico's Human
Rights Commission, said Tuesday.

But drug testing got a strong endorsement from a surprising source Tuesday,
when Mexico City's leftist mayor said he supported the program, which is
opposed by many progressive groups.

"It's justified," said Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. "I support
anything that would help fight drug addiction."

The program started Monday with 93 tests administered to both male and
female students at the government-run Middle School 282. The test require
parental authorization, and 12 students who did not have that authorization
were excused from the testing.

The results of the tests were not made public, and it was not known whether
any students failed the test.

"Parents authorize these tests and are willing to sacrifice the rights of
their children, in the belief that they are doing something to solve the
(drug) problem," said Margarita Griesbach, of the Mexican Network for
Children's Rights. "But in reality, this doesn't solve it."