Drug Czar Enters the Blogosphere
Drug Czar John Walters recently started his own weblog, titled "Pushing Back." I wish the political culture in this country would be more open to using arcane titles of nobility. What member of Congress or cabinet official doesn't really view his or her sphere of influence, whether it be a district, a committee, an issue, or an entire department of the Executive Branch, as a personal fiefdom? At least they act according to that premise, even if they censor themselves in making public pronouncements to that effect. After all, look what happened to Al Haig back when President Reagan was shot.
Blogs that are "authored" by political actors are dismally dry endeavors that do little more than issue press releases and messages of the day or week in a "hip" format. They are blogs in form only, with none of the punch of legit blogs (including this one, I hope).
At least Jerry Brown, who is asserting his tough-on-crime credentials in a bid for the Democratic nod the 2006 Attorney General race, writes his own material. Or at least it seems that way.
Having procured $10 million dollars to bribe school districts across the fruited plain to implement random student drug testing, I am surprised that the Drug Czar no longer touts it as a "silver bullet" to combat adolescent substance use and abuse. Perhaps hyperbolic falsehoods are too much even for the most spirited demagogue. A few weeks ago, the LegiSchool Project of California State University Sacramento sent out a high school civics curriculum that included my Brainwash article on student drug testing from last year. That article underscores the willful obfuscation of government actors on the issue. Surprise, surprise...
++++++++++
Testing the Wrong Policy on Students
Nikos A. Leverenz
September 19, 2004
Why are Washington bureaucrats so enamored with random student drug testing? The evidence thus far is clear: drug testing has a poor track record in reducing student drug use, particularly in comparison to other drug prevention and education programs. Its fiscal toll on local school budgets saps money that would be better spent on basic educational needs. Drug testing also undermines parental authority, as parents have no input as to whether their child will be tested. Most ominously, the practice creates future citizens who become accustomed to ever-broader government surveillance as merely routine.
Despite these concerns, the federal government is using a wide array of public resources--monetary and institutional--to advance drug testing in schools nationwide. In 2002, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) issued a booklet called "What You Need to Know About Drug Testing in Schools." The stated goal of the booklet is to "shed light and offer perspective on this multifaceted and sometimes controversial topic."
The federal government's activities go far beyond simple pamphleteering, however. The ONDCP sponsored four "Regional Testing Summits" this year on the subject. Random student drug testing was also advanced during the ONDCP's "25 Cities Initiative," where copies of its booklet were distributed to drug treatment professionals and law enforcement officials.
Then-Deputy Drug Czar Andrea Grubb Barthwell informally suggested at these meetings that drug testing should be extended to those students who drive to school and to young drivers seeking car insurance. This broad expansion of adolescent drug testing is also advanced by organizations like the Student Drug-Testing Coalition and the Drug Free America Foundation, which claim: "It's not a trust issue, it's a health and safety issue. As we said when dealing with the Soviet Union during the Cold War--'trust but verify.'" Comparing American students to deadly totalitarian regimes is disturbing on its face, and it demonstrates the intemperate zeal of those who pursue authoritarian policy objectives under the genteel guise of "health" and "compassion."
The ONDCP is also intent on strong-arming state governments from taking a pro-active approach to the issue. In late June, it sent Barthwell to the California legislature in order to testify against a bill banning mandatory random drug testing of students. Her taxpayer-funded appearance before the Assembly Education Committee, along with a retinue of assistants, represented her sixth formal visit to California in 2004 prior to her resignation.
Drug Czar John Walters touts drug testing as a "silver bullet" to combat student drug use. The best available scientific evidence shows otherwise. For example, a study of 960 schools with 94,000 students conducted by scientists who the federal government relies on for its Monitoring the Future survey of adolescent substance use, concluded:
[Drug testing] is found not to be associated with students' reported illicit drug use--even random testing that potentially subjects the entire student body. Testing was not found to have significant association with the prevalence of drug use among the entire student body nor the prevalence of use among experienced marijuana users.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has also weighed in on drug testing programs targeting student-athletes and others involved in "competitive extracurricular activities." Its Committee on Substance Abuse issued a formal policy statement that rejected the use of drug testing to combat substance abuse:
"Voluntary screening" is the term applied to many mass non-suspicion-based screening programs, yet such programs may not be truly voluntary as there are often negative consequences for those who choose not to take part. Participation in such programs should not be a prerequisite to participation in school activities.
This position stands in stark contrast to the increasingly widespread practice of schools requiring students to submit to drug testing as a condition of participation in extracurricular activities. Drug testing programs that deter or deprive students from participation in such activities are entirely counterproductive. Participation in such activities is the most effective method of combating the problems of substance use, pregnancy, and crime among juveniles.
Drug testing is a medical tool that is intended for two primary purposes: to support the diagnosis of substance abuse and addiction, and to facilitate treatment of those recovering from substance abuse and addiction. Medical practitioners do not consider testing a 'silver bullet' in either case, however. As the American Medical Association notes: "Drug testing does not provide any information about pattern of use of drugs, abuse of or dependence on drugs, or about mental or physical impairments that may result from drug use."
The opinions of the scientific and medical communities aside, Walters also deliberately downplays individual privacy implications. In a 2003 Education Week interview he said, "I don't think the privacy arguments pertain in the case of this disease [addiction]. . . . I'm not talking about reading kids' diaries." His foreword to the ONDCP booklet states that privacy concerns are "unfounded" and that those who focus on them "ignore the enormous potential benefits of drug testing."
Attorney General John Ashcroft, who bemoans citizens invoking "phantoms of lost liberty," shares the ONDCP's callous disregard of individual rights on the drug-testing front. His Department of Justice offers legal counsel to school districts facing court challenges to their drug testing programs.
The Justice Department compounds its erroneous approach to adolescent drug policy by its continued financial support of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program. D.A.R.E., like student drug testing, has not been proven to deter adolescent drug and alcohol use. Because of its dubious effectiveness, the Department of Education's Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program has withheld grant money since 1998.
Politicians and bureaucrats support programs like D.A.R.E. and student drug testing because they address an important social problem--adolescent substance use--without taking big risks to really solve the problem. As with other misguided government "crusades," failure actually substantiates the call for more resources devoted to ephemeral outcomes like "enormous potential benefits." The high costs of such meaningless hyperbole are buttressed by the pervasive political desire to use police officers and schoolchildren as human props on the grand stage of government.
Thus the federal government's ongoing commitment to a costly, ineffective policy boondoggle like student drug testing is unsurprising. What is more notable is Washington's quiet yet powerful bureaucratic assault on this nation's parents and students. Individual liberties--and those constitutional values acknowledging them--should not be blithely regarded as pesky inconveniences by those who are charged with their protection.
Blogs that are "authored" by political actors are dismally dry endeavors that do little more than issue press releases and messages of the day or week in a "hip" format. They are blogs in form only, with none of the punch of legit blogs (including this one, I hope).
At least Jerry Brown, who is asserting his tough-on-crime credentials in a bid for the Democratic nod the 2006 Attorney General race, writes his own material. Or at least it seems that way.
Having procured $10 million dollars to bribe school districts across the fruited plain to implement random student drug testing, I am surprised that the Drug Czar no longer touts it as a "silver bullet" to combat adolescent substance use and abuse. Perhaps hyperbolic falsehoods are too much even for the most spirited demagogue. A few weeks ago, the LegiSchool Project of California State University Sacramento sent out a high school civics curriculum that included my Brainwash article on student drug testing from last year. That article underscores the willful obfuscation of government actors on the issue. Surprise, surprise...
++++++++++
Testing the Wrong Policy on Students
Nikos A. Leverenz
September 19, 2004
Why are Washington bureaucrats so enamored with random student drug testing? The evidence thus far is clear: drug testing has a poor track record in reducing student drug use, particularly in comparison to other drug prevention and education programs. Its fiscal toll on local school budgets saps money that would be better spent on basic educational needs. Drug testing also undermines parental authority, as parents have no input as to whether their child will be tested. Most ominously, the practice creates future citizens who become accustomed to ever-broader government surveillance as merely routine.
Despite these concerns, the federal government is using a wide array of public resources--monetary and institutional--to advance drug testing in schools nationwide. In 2002, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) issued a booklet called "What You Need to Know About Drug Testing in Schools." The stated goal of the booklet is to "shed light and offer perspective on this multifaceted and sometimes controversial topic."
The federal government's activities go far beyond simple pamphleteering, however. The ONDCP sponsored four "Regional Testing Summits" this year on the subject. Random student drug testing was also advanced during the ONDCP's "25 Cities Initiative," where copies of its booklet were distributed to drug treatment professionals and law enforcement officials.
Then-Deputy Drug Czar Andrea Grubb Barthwell informally suggested at these meetings that drug testing should be extended to those students who drive to school and to young drivers seeking car insurance. This broad expansion of adolescent drug testing is also advanced by organizations like the Student Drug-Testing Coalition and the Drug Free America Foundation, which claim: "It's not a trust issue, it's a health and safety issue. As we said when dealing with the Soviet Union during the Cold War--'trust but verify.'" Comparing American students to deadly totalitarian regimes is disturbing on its face, and it demonstrates the intemperate zeal of those who pursue authoritarian policy objectives under the genteel guise of "health" and "compassion."
The ONDCP is also intent on strong-arming state governments from taking a pro-active approach to the issue. In late June, it sent Barthwell to the California legislature in order to testify against a bill banning mandatory random drug testing of students. Her taxpayer-funded appearance before the Assembly Education Committee, along with a retinue of assistants, represented her sixth formal visit to California in 2004 prior to her resignation.
Drug Czar John Walters touts drug testing as a "silver bullet" to combat student drug use. The best available scientific evidence shows otherwise. For example, a study of 960 schools with 94,000 students conducted by scientists who the federal government relies on for its Monitoring the Future survey of adolescent substance use, concluded:
[Drug testing] is found not to be associated with students' reported illicit drug use--even random testing that potentially subjects the entire student body. Testing was not found to have significant association with the prevalence of drug use among the entire student body nor the prevalence of use among experienced marijuana users.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has also weighed in on drug testing programs targeting student-athletes and others involved in "competitive extracurricular activities." Its Committee on Substance Abuse issued a formal policy statement that rejected the use of drug testing to combat substance abuse:
"Voluntary screening" is the term applied to many mass non-suspicion-based screening programs, yet such programs may not be truly voluntary as there are often negative consequences for those who choose not to take part. Participation in such programs should not be a prerequisite to participation in school activities.
This position stands in stark contrast to the increasingly widespread practice of schools requiring students to submit to drug testing as a condition of participation in extracurricular activities. Drug testing programs that deter or deprive students from participation in such activities are entirely counterproductive. Participation in such activities is the most effective method of combating the problems of substance use, pregnancy, and crime among juveniles.
Drug testing is a medical tool that is intended for two primary purposes: to support the diagnosis of substance abuse and addiction, and to facilitate treatment of those recovering from substance abuse and addiction. Medical practitioners do not consider testing a 'silver bullet' in either case, however. As the American Medical Association notes: "Drug testing does not provide any information about pattern of use of drugs, abuse of or dependence on drugs, or about mental or physical impairments that may result from drug use."
The opinions of the scientific and medical communities aside, Walters also deliberately downplays individual privacy implications. In a 2003 Education Week interview he said, "I don't think the privacy arguments pertain in the case of this disease [addiction]. . . . I'm not talking about reading kids' diaries." His foreword to the ONDCP booklet states that privacy concerns are "unfounded" and that those who focus on them "ignore the enormous potential benefits of drug testing."
Attorney General John Ashcroft, who bemoans citizens invoking "phantoms of lost liberty," shares the ONDCP's callous disregard of individual rights on the drug-testing front. His Department of Justice offers legal counsel to school districts facing court challenges to their drug testing programs.
The Justice Department compounds its erroneous approach to adolescent drug policy by its continued financial support of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program. D.A.R.E., like student drug testing, has not been proven to deter adolescent drug and alcohol use. Because of its dubious effectiveness, the Department of Education's Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program has withheld grant money since 1998.
Politicians and bureaucrats support programs like D.A.R.E. and student drug testing because they address an important social problem--adolescent substance use--without taking big risks to really solve the problem. As with other misguided government "crusades," failure actually substantiates the call for more resources devoted to ephemeral outcomes like "enormous potential benefits." The high costs of such meaningless hyperbole are buttressed by the pervasive political desire to use police officers and schoolchildren as human props on the grand stage of government.
Thus the federal government's ongoing commitment to a costly, ineffective policy boondoggle like student drug testing is unsurprising. What is more notable is Washington's quiet yet powerful bureaucratic assault on this nation's parents and students. Individual liberties--and those constitutional values acknowledging them--should not be blithely regarded as pesky inconveniences by those who are charged with their protection.
posted by Nikos A. Leverenz @ 4:28 PM
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