Why Peeing In A Cup Won't Win The Drug War

by Carol Scott · 2010-07-20 06:12:00 UTC
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Turns out peeing in a cup doesn't make teenagers want to say no to drugs. That's what a new U.S. Department of Education study on mandatory random student drug testing found after studying 36 high schools that used federal grants to test football players, actors and other super-involved students. Students had to agree to the random drug testing in order to take part in extracurriculars.

The hope was that drug testing would curb and detect drug use and influence all students - even the kids who weren't playing sports - to avoid drugs.

But although there was a small dip in substance use in schools that used testing (16 percent of students in drug-testing schools reported using illegal substances; 22 percent had used them in non-testing schools), the study found that the dip didn't carry over to kids who weren't doing extracurriculars.

What's more, testing made no difference in whether students planned to use drugs in the future. In schools that used drug testing and schools that didn't, roughly 1 of every 3 students planned to use illegal substances over the next year.

File this one under "Duh." Last time I checked, scaring someone into obedience is not the best way to change their thinking in the long-term. How can you teach kids to say no to drugs if you're not allowing them to say no to an invasion of privacy? And in the case of alcohol and tobacco - which some schools tested for - wouldn't it be better to teach students to make informed decisions on smoking and drinking once they come of age, instead of handing them a plastic cup and ushering them to the bathroom?

The Bush administration pumped millions of dollars into federal grants for random student drug testing; many of those grants are now at the end of their cycle. The Obama administration hasn't requested funding for new grants, a U.S. Department of Education spokeswoman told me last week.

Looks like mandatory random student drug testing was an expensive lesson to learn. Let's hope educators are taking notes so that next time, they won't fail their students.

Photo credit: Valentin.Ottone

Carol Scott is the Education Editor for Change.org.
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