Monday, November 27, 2006

SSDP beats Drug Czar in Florida

The St. Petersburg Times reports that a school board in Inverness, Florida has rejected federal money from the Drug Czar for student drug testing, with some local parents saying the practice is "intrusive and a waste of taxpayers' dollars."

While I can't be sure that SSDP played a major role in the school board's decision, it does come just a month after I was quoted in an article by the same reporter about the school district considering taking the money.
A federally funded 2003 study by the University of Michigan found that student drug use did not decrease in schools where students were being randomly tested.

In fact, drug testing may have the opposite effect, according to a national grass roots organization in Washington, D.C., called Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

"We think it makes existing drug problems worse," said Tom Angell, the group's campaign director. "Requiring students to submit a urine sample definitely deters them from participating in extracurricular activities, which are supposed to help keep them away from drugs."
It's definitely a huge victory any time educators reject the Drug Czar and his harmful anti-youth policies, but we cannot stop fighting for the thousands of students around the country who still have to submit urine samples as a condition of participating in afterschool activities.

Learn more about student drug testing on SSDP's website.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey, I gotta say that what you guys are doing is a great thing. What this country has done is waged a war on it's students. We students are the future of America. We're not criminals if we smoke a little bit of marijuana. Those who say that it is a harmful thing is obviously speaking out of ignorance. Prohibition makes criminals out of people who are hurting no one.