Education Employee drugs testing
Alcohol and Drugs test Education
Drug users are younger than ever
Studies on the prevalence of adolescent cannabis use have found marked age and gender differences. The prevalence of cannabis use has consistently been found to increase with age during adolescence and higher rates of cannabis use have been found among males across all age groups. Heavy use patterns are also more common among males.
Cannabis is a growing problem with both male and female students
A recent study describing the prevalence, context and recent trends in cannabis use among adolescents found that among 14-19 year olds, 47.8% had the opportunity to use cannabis in the past year, and 45.2% have used the drug at least once in their lifetime. Substantial increases have occurred since 1995 in the prevalence of use among young females. While most cannabis use was fairly infrequent, a minority of 14-19 year olds used cannabis at least weekly. Cannabis use was associated with regular tobacco and alcohol use, and other illicit drugs.
Asking school children and young people to provide urine samples as part of a school-based drug-testing policy is commonplace in the United States but not so in the United Kingdom. However, in 2004 both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition gave support for such testing as a way of reducing the impact of illegal drug use among students and pupils: making the practice increasingly more common in the UK.
The theory underpinning drug-testing assumes that making a hidden behaviour more visible reduces the likelihood of its occurrence. However, the power of surveillance to act in this way is likely to be greater in the case of those who have either not used illegal drugs or who have used illegal drugs on only a few occasions. More regular users may be more resistant to the impact of surveillance in reducing their drug use.
Similarly whilst it has been proposed that drug-testing presents the opportunity of targeting help on those who are using illegal drugs at a much earlier point than would otherwise be possible, a random drug-testing programme means that this benefit is only likely to be extended to a small number of pupils (i.e. those who are randomly selected for testing). In addition, since most illegal drug use on the part of pupils involves occasional use of cannabis it is not easy to see what kind of therapeutic intervention would be judged appropriate.
Drug Tests in Schools
A study by Neil McKeganey, Professor of Drug Misuse Research at Glasgow University, reviewed the ethics and practicalities of drug testing and considered its likely effectiveness. Findings include:
1. There is a dearth of high quality studies evaluating the impact of school-based random drug-testing programmes. It is therefore very difficult to be clear about the impact such programmes may have both on pupils' levels of drug use and on other aspects of their education.
2. Occasional use of cannabis is the most common form of drug use among pupils.
3. Random testing seems unlikely to be effective in getting early support for pupils using illegal drugs.
4. Drug-testing raised a wide range of concerns, including:
a. Costs can vary widely depending on the approach
b. Ethical issues, such as who to test, obtaining informed consent, observation of tests and confidentiality of results
c. Responses of both school and pupils to a positive drug test result
d. Risk that pupils may switch from more easily detectable 'soft' drugs to 'harder' drugs that are more difficult to trace
e. Possible undermining of trust between staff and pupils
f. Difficulty in judging how widely programmes will be developed across the UK
There is currently no government funding for testing; however, already one state school within England has developed a programme of drug testing and it is conceivable that other schools may follow.
Developing drug-testing procedures is always controversial and ethically complex. It has been recommended that the UK avoid the ad hoc proliferation of drug-testing programmes until clear evidence of effectiveness has been obtained on the basis of rigorous and independent research.
Cannabis availability and use is common among adolescents and there has been an increase in use between 2000 and 2007, although only among young females. Future research is required to understand why this recent increase has occurred and trends in cannabis uptake and use patterns among this group should be carefully monitored. Interventions may need to be developed and made available to the group of young people who are using cannabis heavily.
Guidance from central government
The Department of Education and Skills has produced guidance that expresses considerable caution regarding the development of random drug-testing programmes within UK schools. Where schools are considering implementing such programmes they are encouraged to solicit the agreement of the wider school community and to consider whether the cost of such programmes are an appropriate use of school resources, whether such testing is culturally sensitive, and what response they would make to a possible positive test from pupils.
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