Drug Testing Tour

An e-mail communication from Jennifer Kern of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) informs us that the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) is about to begin its fourth annual tour designed to promote drug testing in schools. She is calling for a response similar to last year’s when “dedicated drug policy reformers descended on every meeting with sharp questions and literature to counter the ONDCP's deceptive presentations. Many educators expressed dissatisfaction with the one-sided information provided by the ONDCP, and were grateful to hear what we had to say: that random student drug testing is unsupported by the best available research, and can deter students from extracurricular activities--the very activities that increase students' connection to their schools and to caring adults.”

Meetings will take place in Charleston, South Carolina on January 24th, Newark, New Jersey on February 27th, Honolulu, Hawaii on March 27th, and Las Vegas, Nevada on April 24th. The DPA provides an online toolkit for those who plan to attend.

An important point to remember, made by Richard Lawrence Miller in his book Drug Warriors and Their Prey: From Police Power to Police State, about drug testing is that it highlights the fact that drug use is a status crime not a behavioral one. The only reason you would need to test people for drug use is that you cannot tell whether or not they take drugs from the way they act. This explains why the ONDCP is so interested in spreading the use of testing because without it the drug problem might not be large enough for them.

Cross Posted on The Trebach Report