Drug Testing

In today's world there is a huge debate about drug testing in school. Drug testing in schools can be good and it can be bad. There are a lot of people who say drug testing is wrong and they have reasons and facts on why it is wrong to test students for the use of illegal drugs. There are also a lot of people who say that drug testing is something all High schools should do.

Critics say that drug testing "is easy to elude and the results are likely to have error or false results". Many people also say that it is an invasion of privacy, expensive, and inaccurate. Critics say that "school testing isn't a good preventative", because marijuana is the easiest to detect kids might go and use harder drugs like cocaine and meth. The skillful drug users know how to pass the test; they or anyone can go online and find many ways to pass tests with illegal drugs in their system. Critics also state that "it might discourage students from participating in extracurricular activities".

There are a lot of startling facts about teenage drug users; about 30% of 8th graders have tried illegal drugs at least once and about 50% of 12th graders have smoked marijuana at least once. Over the years the numbers have grown. According to Edward Goldman, in the 2005-2006 school year, 570 students were recommended for expulsion in Clark County and the 2004-2005 school year about 449 students were recommended for expulsion.

About 500 schools around the United States do the drug testing with out federal aid and about 497 schools receive government aid for testing. In 1979 25 million people used illicit drugs. That is also the year that the United States was at its peak, in the same year the number began to drop a decade before drug testing came into use (Bertha Madras).

"In 2002 Supreme Court ruling allows the use of random drug test for students in extracurricular activities and sports under the conditions that the drug test results remain private and school officials refrain form punishing students for testing positive. The federal government has given out $35 million in grants since 2003" (Bertha Madras, High School testing promoted)

Madras also points out that the test results don't go to future colleges or to future employees, only parents and people who can help.

In the 4th amendment it states that we as Americans have the right to the protection against illegal search and seizure of personal items from an authority figure. The court considers drug testing as "a special breed of search and seizure." The Supreme Court also