Should schools do random drug testing? Since the Supreme Court ruled random testing programs constitutional in 2002, more than a thousand schools have implemented them.

• Author: Walters, John P.
• Position: DEBATE

YES

Since 2002, when the Supreme Court ruled that random school drug testing is constitutional, more schools have adopted the practice. Meanwhile, over the past five years, teen drug use has declined 23 percent, with 840,000 fewer students using illegal drugs today than in 2001.

But despite these encouraging numbers, some teenagers still fall prey to peer pressure to get involved with drugs--all too often with damaging or tragic results.

More than 1,000 schools around the country have implemented random student drug-testing programs, and we're hoping more schools will follow.

Random testing in schools provides students with a clear disincentive to do drugs, since students never know when they might be tested. For students who don't really want to do drugs but feel pressured to try them, random testing gives them an iron-clad excuse for saying no.

Using drugs can have a variety of negative consequences for young people: Whether it's failing to live up to their academic or social potential, getting in trouble with the law, or jeopardizing the health and safety of themselves and others, young people who use drugs, even casually, put themselves at risk. Random student drug testing can prevent this by confidentially identifying those who may be on the path to trouble, so they can get help before it's too late.

By giving students an incentive to stay away from drugs, random drug testing helps them lead healthy, successful lives. For that reason, it's one of many tools we believe schools should use to fight drug use among teens.

John P. Walters, Director

WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY

NO

Drug testing in schools requires students to provide urine samples for analysis, even if they have done nothing to provoke suspicion.

Randomly screening the urine of America's youth is an excessively invasive policy that fails to achieve its purpose. Rather than waste...