HOW SERIOUS IS DRUG PROBLEM?

Some states are experiencing efforts to legalize drug usage under the guise
of treatment without mandatory provisions. These efforts have occurred in
Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon, Colorado and Florida.

At the same time, we know that approximately one-third of the students
nationwide have been sold, offered or given an illegal drug on school
property. The Center For Disease Control reported 30.2 percent of students
surveyed nationwide reported being offered, sold or given an illegal drug
on school property during the 1999 school year.

We also know that before a student graduates from high school in America,
he or she is more likely than not to have used an illegal drug during their
lifetime. In a survey of 435 students across America, 54 percent of
twelfth-grade students and 45.6 percent of tenth-grade students reported
that they had used an illegal drug during their lifetime.

Juveniles are beginning to ingest drugs at increasingly younger ages.
Children grow chemically dependent upon drugs more quickly than adults.

With drug abuse comes other social ills. These include violence, criminal
activity, health-care costs, teenage pregnancy and undereducated youth.
Substance abuse causes more deaths, disabilities and illnesses than any
other preventable health condition.

There are many things that can be done to improve these statistics. These
include deterring drug use, education, treatment and enforcement of laws.
What we are willing or not willing to do about the drug problem is a
barometer of our seriousness over the issue.

An interesting and little-known fact concerning the prevention and
treatment of drug abuse involves the testing of hair. Hair provides an
extended view of a person's history of substance abuse because drugs and
drug metabolites remain in the hair shaft indefinitely and hair can be
tested for all types of illicit substances. Collection of the hair samples
is noninvasive and preservation, storage and transportation of hair samples
are things that are easy to do.

New Orleans has taken this piece of scientific information and put it to
use in attempting to address their drug problem. The New Orleans Drug
Testing and Assistance Program involves schools that have adopted the
program and includes both mandatory and voluntary testing.

In participating New Orleans schools, students who wish to participate in
inter-scholastic or intramural athletics or physically strenuous
extracurricular activities must submit to the hair testing. For students
who are not engaged in those activities, participation is voluntary.

The hair analysis is not done randomly, but is performed on all students in
the program. Students who test positive are referred for a professional
assessment of the student's drug use, which may result in a referral for
drug treatment services. Students who test positive are not suspended or
expelled based on the test results. The information is not shared with
local law enforcement.

In Jacksonville, a program referred to as D-FY-INCE was begun in 1991.
Under this program, a student becomes a D-FY-INCE member by voluntarily
agreeing to take a drug test to provide evidence that he or she is drug
free. Merchants in the locality offer discounts on their merchandise and
services ranging from ten to fifty percent for D-FY-INCE members. Merchants
identify themselves by displaying a window sticker that indicates they
offer discounts to D-FY-INCE students. The students receive a picture
identification and a free T- shirt with the D-FY-INCE logo. Fifteen other
local high schools have implemented the program.

The United States Supreme Court has previously held that randomly drug
testing the urine of students is constitutionally acceptable. This was
extended just last June in a Tecumseh, Oklahoma case. In that case, the
Supreme Court upheld required drug tests of students involved in all
extracurricular activities, whether French club or football. Like other
legal school drug-testing programs, the Tecumseh program was not designed
to punish, was not shared with law enforcement and was therapeutic in
nature. In many jurisdictions, the establishment of drug courts has also
had good results.

Substance abuse continues to be a national problem. It is a problem that
continues to gives us violence, criminal activity, increased health care
costs, teenage pregnancy and undereducated youth. There are programs that
show signs of success in the war against drugs, but they are dependent upon
how serious a community is about dealing with the drug problem.