A leading pediatric group in the country is recommending against in-school random drug testing because there’s not enough evidence to show its effectiveness.
“Adolescents may attempt to outsmart drug testing by switching to a substance that is not detectable by urine testing or is not included in the panel,” the Philippine Pediatric Society (PPS) said in a statement.
PPS echoed a 2015 policy statement of The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) where it recommends against random drug testing in schools. AAP claims that “there is a yet limited evidence to the efficacy of such action.”
While it recognizes that drug use among the youth must be addressed, PPS argued that government’s action of in-school random drug testing “should be studied closely.”
The lack of sufficient research-based evidence to justify random school-based drug testing is also a reason that should be factored in to measure its efficacy.
“The government’s plan to conduct random drug testing has to be studied closely,” it said.
In-school drug testing poses several risks such as potential breach of confidentiality between student and school, deterioration of school-student relationship, and mistakes in interpretation of drug tests that result in false positives, according to PPS.
“Moreover, this approach may be damaging to the adolescent who may be subjected to harsher consequences once identified, not only by the school but also by the community at large,” the group added. (davaotoday.com)
