Drugs testing in schools

[DaBeeeenster]

BBC News Story
Observer Story

Schoolchildren will be subjected to random drug testing, Tony Blair announced yesterday, under new guidance for headteachers to be published shortly.

The move, routine in some American schools, is designed to reassure parents worried about the increasing availability of drugs in the playground.

But it raises serious questions over the invasion of pupils' civil liberties: random testing has not been introduced in workplaces because to take samples without consent from an adult constitutes assault.

With around a third of 15-year-olds having smoked cannabis, heads could also find themselves rapidly swamped with positive results.

What are people's thoughts on this?

[Knoxville]

I heard this on the news this afternoon, tbh it just confuses me, the government downgrade the most used drug (only 9% of drugs taken by teenagers are class a)yet tighten up and spend so much on finding it in secondary schools where the money could surely be better spent looking for the people that sell the kids these drugs.

Im not saying that kids should be allowed to haev these drugs but surely cutting out the source is better than spending on picking up the drugs one spliff at a time.....

[unrealrocks]

I think its a good idea, a few years ago (when I was back at school, lol) there was a suprise drugs raid with dogs and stuff ... they arrested 4 people out of a year of about 200.

[Punky]

this is a real invasion of privacy. surely its a reflection on the school's drug education that they need to get in drugs dogs to check the kids out. they are not doing their jobs properly and the issue of young people using drugs is for them and their parents to sort out, not some mangy mutt and some knobs with radios. peace.

p.s. hope they don't come to my college, nrly every1 will be screwed, including tutors!

[Rave]

Yeah, I can't believe this isn't a joke. If kids who take drugs know they're likely to be caught if they go to school, they're not going to go are they? They're going to go and sit in a bus shelter or park and take more drugs than they otherwise would. If I ever meet the person who thought this up I know I'd have a hard time restraining myself from shaking them and shouting "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?!? ARE YOU A TOTAL ****ING MORON!?!?!?".

I went to a private school so I guess they could have tested me if they wanted, but had I gone to a state school I would have invited anyone who tried to test me to go forth and multiply.

I think its a good idea, a few years ago (when I was back at school, lol) there was a suprise drugs raid with dogs and stuff ... they arrested 4 people out of a year of about 200.

Yeah, good use of time and money there, and I bet that left everyone in the school with a really positive image of the police. Is it illegal to tell a policeman he's a retard?

Rich :¬)

[Big RICHARD]

Yeah, good use of time and money there, and I bet that left everyone in the school with a really positive image of the police. Is it illegal to tell a policeman he's a retard?

Hang on.....

It's not the police who make up these stupid laws! Their job is to uphold the current laws, however stupid they may be!

Blair and co seem to be imposing more and more laws on us, it's almost as if we live in some sort of developing dictatorship.

Testing kids for drugs is not the way to stop drug taking amongst young people.

The move, routine in some American schools, is designed to reassure parents worried about the increasing availability of drugs in the playground.

They aren't buying drugs in the playground! They aren't even buying drugs from other kids! How far from reality do the government want to get?

[DaBeeeenster]

Personally, I fail to see how this helps anyone. Can someone explain to me who it helps? Kids? They will merely be made criminals for something that they always will do.

[Allen]

Find the kids with the drugs, they'll crack easily. Then you can find the scum who supply kids with drugs. Don't involve me though, I'll take a baseball bat to their filthy heads!

[DeludedGuy]

This is a good thing, if they went to my old secondary school they would be kicking out half the students there.

[DaBeeeenster]

Find the kids with the drugs, they'll crack easily. Then you can find the scum who supply kids with drugs. Don't involve me though, I'll take a baseball bat to their filthy heads!

That's great, so now there's a load of kids being lynched by the local organised crime underworld.

If kids are going to take drugs they are going to take drugs. They simply wont take them to school. Pushing the problem under the carpet and out of public view is not a solution.

[Punky]

i think its fair enough for kids to be searched in schools for drugs if their is evidence that they have been using them in school, but if a kid is using drugs outside school, why is it any business of the school to know this? as i said before, its a massive invasion of privacy.

[Big RICHARD]

i think its fair enough for kids to be searched in schools for drugs if their is evidence that they have been using them in school, but if a kid is using drugs outside school, why is it any business of the school to know this? as i said before, its a massive invasion of privacy.

Agreed!

[Allen]

Huh, what would this country be like if the police couldn't invade your privacy.....

Drug pushers wouldn't be able to be searched therefore not caught.

Rapists wouldn't be able to be tested therefore not caught.

Murderers wouldn't be able to be ID'd through video tape or whatever therefore not caught.

Great... what a country we're coming to.

P.S. Obviously I exaggerated in the above, but you get what I mean.

[5lab]

actually, kids can and do buy drugs in the playground.. i read somewhere about a 15 yr old crack dealer who got turned in when some 11 yr olds mum found her son taking crack! i would have thought that without that kiddie flogging drugs in the playground the 11yr old wouldnt have had access for a few more years..

[DaBeeeenster]

Huh, what would this country be like if the police couldn't invade your privacy.....

Drug pushers wouldn't be able to be searched therefore not caught.

Rapists wouldn't be able to be tested therefore not caught.

Murderers wouldn't be able to be ID'd through video tape or whatever therefore not caught.

Great... what a country we're coming to.

P.S. Obviously I exaggerated in the above, but you get what I mean.

The laws that the above people have commited are extremely serious. Possession of, saw, a small amount of cannabis, is hardly up there with rape or murder is it?

[Allen]

As I said, I was exaggerating. But it's still illegal (I don't care about whether it's class C or A, a drug is still a drug - illegal!).

So yes, it's as bad in my eyes as rape and murder. I've known people to start off using cannabis and move on to harder stuff, get involved in dodgy dealings and end up dealing themselves. I know it doesn't happen all the time.

If kids are able to use drugs freely they will grow up thinking that laws are there to be broken. Most break them daily anyway. Where are peoples morals these days?? Kids at the moment don't give a f**k about the law. Allowing them to break another is condoning the act.