OUR VIEW: It's time to drug test the kids (vote in poll)
Parents are the best anti-drug of all
Rational adults agree that children should not abuse drugs, yet they’re torn over the issue of random drug tests for kids.
Drug laws and enforcement have failed the culture miserably, mostly serving to empower and enrich the criminal thugs who are delighted to facilitate black market drug trading. Children are their easiest targets.
Parents and teachers cannot possibly control the supply of drugs, so they must work on the demand side of the equation by discouraging drug consumption.
Information and love are the best anti drug available. Children who receive daily anti-drug messages from people who love them are at a tremendous advantage against the cunning drug dealer or drug-abusing classmate.
But information and love aren’t always enough. Children must also know that parents and others in positions of trust are not leaving fate entirely to trust. Children must know that if they use drugs they are likely to get caught.
What’s the best way to tell them they will get caught? To administer occasional random drug tests. Ideally, random drug tests of teens and pre-teens are conducted at home by parents and guardians. Another great option is for parents or guardians to request drug tests while taking children to physicians for checkups or athletic physicals.
Drug tests aren’t free. Tests that screen for most substances cost about $40 at pharmacies and each can be used once. But the price is chicken feed relative to the cost of trying to save a child who develops a drug addiction.
Cheyenne Mountain School District 12 has embarked upon a program to provide random drug tests for high school students whose parents volunteer them. Enrollment in the program is $30 for each student, and it doesn’t guarantee a random test. Students who fail drug tests will face disciplinary actions, including dismissal from extra-curricular activities and loss of on-campus driving privileges.
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The D-12 program provides an acceptable option for parents and guardians who decline to manage this responsibility themselves. But anyone enrolling a child in the program should realize they may be giving public employees — people not part of the family — access to information that could someday harm a child. No matter what anyone promises, you cannot be guaranteed that a hot urinary analysis conducted by a school will not become public knowledge. The punishment itself could provide grist for the rumor mill or some other child’s Facebook page.
It’s great that D-12 is offering drug screenings, especially in the wake of discovering a heroin problem at Cheyenne Mountain High School that district officials described as “significant.”
Before signing up, however, consider the alternative of a home-based drug-testing regimen — one that guarantees an occasional random test. Or consider requesting drug tests at each child’s next visit to the doctor, where patient-confidentiality laws will keep it all in the family.
Parents and guardians have the option to keep their children off drugs. Random drug testing of children plays an important role in exercising that option.
— Wayne Laugesen, editorial page editor, for the editorial board. Friend him on Facebook
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