School Drug Tests, opinions?

[Binaural]

If you've done nothing wrong you've got nothing to hide.

I don't buy in to the argument that if you've done nothing wrong, you've nothing to fear. If you don't have anything to hide, make sure you don't complain if you ever get raided by cops without a warrant, or get body cavity searched by a cop who doesn't like your attitude.

There are valid reasons to perform random drug tests - for example, for people who control dangerous machinery or who have access to pharmaceuticals, or who drive trains etc. I don't think that high school kids fall into this category where testing is done because any impairment can be disasterous.

Accurate drug tests are expensive and require teachers or other professionals to be trained in applying and supervising the testing (urine, patches etc). Drugs like alcohol can't be detected, whereas pot can be detected for a few months. Methamphetamines disappear in a couple of days. Ironically, introducing drug tests could encourage kids to use harder drugs in preference to soft ones like pot. Outcome = teh win!

Besides these considerations, I think kids have a right to privacy that a school should not be casually allowed to violate. A school's reponsibility for preventing drug use should end at enforcing school rules regarding drug use and dealing - close supervision and monitoring for drug use is a parent's responsibility.

 

[S.]

If you've done nothing wrong you've got nothing to hide.

Sick. So naturally you'll have no problem with me secretly following you around 24/7 reporting anything and everything to your parents and/or the cops, because you do nothing wrong? I'm betting you'd get pretty sick of having YOUR privacy invaded all the time.

Fuck em, it's an invasion of privacy and just another removal of the basic right of every person to do whatever the hell they want provided it's not harming anyone else. Unless people have a good reason to believe that you are taking drugs and that it is negatively affecting other people, they can just shove it up their respective arses - it's none of their business. Same goes for random breath tests/drug tests on the road - unless they have a reason to suspect that you ARE drunk or under the influence of drugs, they shouldn't be able to test you for it (although in the road testing case they at least have the argument that you MIGHT be intrinsically putting other people at risk - flawed argument IMO but that's another story). If someone is high/stoned/whatever at school, as long as they're not causing dramas for other students (or staff), who cares? They're not endangering anyone, they're not having any negative effects on the place, so why on earth should they be harassed about drugs, without their consent?

And for the record, I don't take any kind of illicit drugs, so it wouldn't affect me anyway.

 

[|Matt|]

i dunno what ur pe teacher told you, but i have herd upto 1 month...

and fatty why where u wondering?

Yeah but it depends on the quality of the substance and how old/heavy and how used to the substance you are too.

A person who weighs 40KG and has never had the strong stuff before might have the stuff in their system for a month.

Plus, this testing wouldn't bother me. Apart from the odd drink I don't do drugs. Might get me some free time out of class

 

[S.]

maybe you are not aware. but Australia is the largest consumer of drugs per capita.

i am for the testing, young kids aren't aware of the damage drugs do to a young and growing brain.
i've seen many kids falling to the "im old enough, can make my own decision" line. in the end, they go on anti-depressants, miss out on the fun and lead a life of crap.

it's just sad to see those things happen to young kids. it's the same case of Cigarettes having a COOL factor in the 70-80-90's, nowadays it's drugs.

Why not educate the kids then, so they ARE aware of the damage drugs can do to a "young and growing brain", and THEN let them make their own informed decision? Ramming stuff like this down people's throat doesn't convince them that you're right, it just makes ideological enemies out of them.

 

[custard]

Why not educate the kids then, so they ARE aware of the damage drugs can do to a "young and growing brain", and THEN let them make their own informed decision?

doesn't work...... they tried it at my school..... and most of the kids went home and hit the bong or had some eccies and went out raving....

 

[Mo]

educate kids, that's gotta start at home and drugs aren't a topic that is nicely taken, as a kid myself i asked my mum about Mary Jane, it eventually made it do it...how to educate i dont bloody know.

maybe the angle i used wasn't how the message chould have been passed, but you did seem to get the point.

i learnt it through experience maybe those kids using drugs will learn a lesson and become something more significant.

 

[S.]

doesn't work...... they tried it at my school..... and most of the kids went home and hit the bong or had some eccies and went out raving....

And how does that mean it doesn't work? If they actually have all the real information about the negatives AND positives of various drugs, and make a decision knowing that stuff full well, then regardless of whether they chose to take drugs or not, it worked. This is about having the ability to make an informed decision, and if somebody is fully informed of the potential consequences, understands them etc, and still chooses to do it, who the hell is anyone else to say they can't or try and enforce such rules against them?

 

[fattyandthepiemakers]

A bit off topic but...

At my school a few mates of mine had a bit of an incident outside school hours. They went to a party, got drunk then started mixing perscription pills (just random pills they found) in their drinks. In the morning one of them was dead, two had to be taken to hospital and one got away without anything happening. This happened at the start of the school holidays and the school released to the media that they will be offering counceling to those effected. When school returns what do they do? They kick the 3 girls out of the school. They say the school has a zero tollerance policy on drugs. A new rule has been put in place, all students found using or showing evidence of using drugs of any discription will be expelled. Now hold up, do you want the school to be closed down. Think about it, it's a private school (apparently 'the best' in Townsville), a large majority of kids that go their are snobby wankers that judge you on what you own not what you are like a person. Some of these kids are fucking loaded! They say that public schools are the ones with the major drug problems, but we have the money. They could soar in the clouds every week if they wanted do and some probably already do. Sure in one aspect compolsary drug testing in schools is a good thing but what if this was implimented in to our school? Expelling 50-80% of the school each semester? I guess if these test were to come in to practice at all school they would think about other approaches towards student's taking drugs.

Wow, did I write all that without a break?!

 

[Venciferus]

Fuck em, it's an invasion of privacy and just another removal of the basic right of every person to do whatever the hell they want provided it's not harming anyone else. Unless people have a good reason to believe that you are taking drugs and that it is negatively affecting other people, they can just shove it up their ...................

So I guess your strongly (very strongly) against teachers/school checking students lunch boxes for un-healthy food etc and then students receiving a detention (or similiar) for having un-healthy food in there lunch box.

They kick the 3 girls out of the school. They say the school has a zero tollerance policy on drugs. A new rule has been put in place, all students found using or showing evidence of using drugs of any discription will be expelled.

Me, being a smart ass etc absolutely hate, hate, hate when things like that happen, the school has NO authority over what you do outside of the school grounds/time and no reason to punish you for doing such outside school time/grounds, just like when I "accidently" threw a plum at the principles car, I got a week detention for doing that (which I didn't turn up to) after school out the front of my house.

 

[naz]

Depends what you take.

Common drugs such as:
Marijuana can take up to 5 days, Cocaine up to 2 days, Heroin up to 2 days and Ecstasy up to 5 days.

Health last year

I remember hearing a while ago that there was some test they could do to test if you had EVER done any kind of illicit substance for entering the Police academy, and if you had done it even once you could not get in

what are you talking about, weed can stay in your system up to 2months, its a lipid (absorbed into body fat)

try

www.erowid.com for educational information on almost every drug.

 

[S.]

So I guess your strongly (very strongly) against teachers/school checking students lunch boxes for un-healthy food etc and then students receiving a detention (or similiar) for having un-healthy food in there lunch box.

haha are you serious? Someone somewhere actually does that? If so, hell yeah. And keep in mind, there is no law saying you can't be a vengeful, spiteful person, provided you technically don't break any other laws.

 

[fattyandthepiemakers]

its a lipid (absorbed into body fat)

So if you exercise and use up your body fat for energy does that get rid of a percentage of it?

 

[sockman]

thanks naz, using that site for my pdhpe assignment due 8 15 tomorrow!!!

 

[Binaural]

So if you exercise and use up your body fat for energy does that get rid of a percentage of it?

No - nothing shifts it basically, just have to wait it out. If you want to avoid getting caught, you need to use masking agents (which can be detected as well).

 

[naz]

i heard "dolomite" (pure calcium tablets) may clear any traces of THC out of your body fat, mungin on a few tablets a day. i cant vouch validity, but my school shrink told me hahaha

 

[Binaural]

So I guess your strongly (very strongly) against teachers/school checking students lunch boxes for un-healthy food etc and then students receiving a detention (or similiar) for having un-healthy food in there lunch box.

Much as I hate to agree with S twice in one night , I think forced lunchbox checks is a total waste of teacher's time and a pointless invasion of privacy. What's wrong with making it school policy that healthy foods are sold in the school canteen, and educating kids on good choices?

Given 5/21ths of a kid's meals are likely to be outside school (assuming one meal a day at school) this sort of scheme is really just political grandstanding of little practical merit.

 

[jonot]

That is looking at this on such a simplistic view though. oh yeah, and do me a favour - define wrong.

Yeah, this situation is pretty simple but. Obviously wrong in this context is taking drugs.

All matters such as social perception, whether or not they should/shouldn't be illegal etc aside, the schools are testing for use. If you have been using it, then you're obviously in the wrong.

Edit:

Wow. Just read all the replies in relation to my first response.

I was talking about 'wrong' in the context of this situation.

I.e. having taken drugs, and being detected in the test.



Also like S., I have never taken illicit drugs, and don't plan to.

 

[naz]

Yeah, this situation is pretty simple but. Obviously wrong in this context is taking drugs.

All matters such as social perception, whether or not they should/shouldn't be illegal etc aside, the schools are testing for use. If you have been using it, then you're obviously in the wrong.

okay imo, if your using drugs at school your fucked, but drug testing at schools is way to broad, testing cant test 830-3 mon to fri, schools should have no fuckin say or opoinon in what you do when your not there.

 

[demo man]

So I guess your strongly (very strongly) against teachers/school checking students lunch boxes for un-healthy food etc and then students receiving a detention (or similiar) for having un-healthy food in there lunch box.

and are you for it? that's fucked up on so many levels.

Me, being a smart ass etc absolutely hate, hate, hate when things like that happen, the school has NO authority over what you do outside of the school grounds/time and no reason to punish you for doing such outside school time/grounds, just like when I "accidently" threw a plum at the principles car, I got a week detention for doing that (which I didn't turn up to) after school out the front of my house.

I recken you deserved to be punished for that one. (assuming you threw a plum at the principal's car, as i read it)

 

[PINT of Stella. mate!]

I've come up against drug testing in the work place a lot of times in the past. And occasionally you do get a company that has a progressive "let's not stick our head up our arse whilst simultaneously avoiding cutting off our nose to spite our face" drugs policy. Unfortunately most prefer the "drugs are bad m'kay" policy - by which I mean, enforcing random drug tests that can detect the presence of drugs you may have taken in the previous couple of weeks, then firing you because of the results of that test!

That's the private sector, however and although I could wail for hours about how random drug testing does not create more efficient businesses or rule out incompetency in the work place, I won't.

We're talking about kids at school.

I was at school once (In fact i think it was last thursday, well, until the police moved me on ...)

Crap jokes aside. I took a SHITLOAD* of drugs whilst I was at school and it never hampered me from pursuing a university education (and a temp career at Maccas). At the same time I had former friends and classmates turn into smackhead petty criminals who I only ever hear about these days, if they've died or been sent down for gbh or worse.

Had they introduced Random Drug Testing at my school? Well, there'd have been a hell of a lot more expulsions, that's for sure. I think those who were destined for a life of shooting up and robbing corner shops would have still followed that path. I also think they would have had a lot more company...

Unless a School Body or an Employer is sitting waiting with a fully paid-up re-hab program and the guarantee of their old job or course back with NO recriminations (after clean test results, of course) for those that fail, random drug testing will remain a horribly discriminatory means of clearing out the undesirables from the system.



*By "SHITLOAD" I'm refering to my past memories which were supplied by an enthusiastic (but probably exaggerative) young adolescent who loved Cypress Hill, Scooter and vandalising bus shelters.

I wouldn't trust him either...