Enda Kenny drug testing in schools again.

Speaking in the Dail Enda Kenny brought up his old chestnut drug testing in schools. (Considering the recent allegations that drug taking was happening in the dail you can sigh our petition to drug test Dail Eireann here)

I made a suggestion previously based on analysis of works done in other countries where a voluntary code applies. The boards of management, teachers, parents and pupils decide that in their school they will not do drugs and that a voluntary code is introduced for random drug testing. I do not mean taking swabs or saliva. There are very sophisticated methods of detecting whether drugs are in use in any school.

The consequence has been not only a realisation that drugs are not done in those schools where the voluntary code applies but the beneficial other consequence has been in terms of focus on examinations and results for all students concerned. It is not all about stick either.

Enda Kenny has yet again come out with his “it works abroad” spiel without giving any indication from where this stuff has worked. University of Michigan in 2003 tracked 94,000 students in secondary school some with and others with drug testing. Their conclusion.

Data suggest that drug testing, as practiced in recent years in American secondary schools, does not prevent or inhibit student drug use. The two forms of drug testing that are generally assumed to be most promising for reducing student drug use - random testing applied to all students, and testing of athletes - did not produce encouraging results.

Also from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation

In the absence of robust evaluation, student drug testing will continue to be promoted or contested on the basis of political viewpoint and opinion rather than evidence

So I would love to know where Enda is getting his info. Unless of course the nations children are just pawns in political posturing/ So I emailed the Fine Gael press office on Wednesday and asked what analysis he was using. This is the reply I got.