Shocking!

[floo]

deleted

[Aruntraveller]

I am of the opinion that drug tests should take place on a regular basis at schools, especially if there is any suspicion a child is taking them, and drastic action taken. Drugs ruin lives.

Yes drugs ruin lives. They also save lives but that's another discussion for another day.

Anyhow, I'd be interested in the model you would follow to implement this drugs testing.

Could you explain how the cost would be covered and the time allocated for such extensive testing? Which agencies would do the testing, as I am sure you may have heard even in your cloistered world, the NHS is a little short of the readies as is education.
 
Also what drastic action do you propose?

[Aruntraveller]

I don't live in a cloistered world, I am faced with stark reality every day of my life.

The parents should be expected to pay for drug testing of course.

The Police should be called for a start and it explained to the kids who have tested positive that what they are doing is illegal and the possible consequences.  If any of mine had been stupid enough to take an illegal drug I would have has no hesitation at all in frog marching them off to the police station in hopes of the police scaring the living daylights out of them, and discovering who the dealer was.

I'm tempted to say the stark reality of choosing a new duvet every six months, but as I 'm feeling in a good mood I won't

And just how are you going to get parents to pay for the drug testing? Which parents would pay, just the ones whose kids were suspected?

What of parents who already struggle on low incomes, are you willing to add to their burden? Or perhaps you are going to add to the burden of people who pay taxes by subsidizing it that way. What about children who are in the care system?

As I understand it in a lot of areas there are schemes where the police already go into schools and try to educate children about the danger of drugs, these have varying degrees of success. Surely it would be better to use the best of thses schemes nationwide. 

I'm not sure the police forces would be particularly happy with random parents and children appearing just for the purposes of them having the bejesuses scared out of them. I imagine it may detract from other issues they are trying to deal with.

Once again I detect a slight whiff of the knee jerk without thought for the practicalities.

[Sebastian Toe]

I don't live in a cloistered world, I am faced with stark reality every day of my life.

The parents should be expected to pay for drug testing of course.

How much do the tests cost? How often should they be done? Will they test for class A only or for all drugs? A bit unfair on the vast majority of patents who's kids go nowhere near illegal drugs.

Also kids tend to exaggerate.
I suspect that many of the kids who claim to take drugs, actually say that in order to look cool/tough etc.

[Aruntraveller]

I don't buy an expensive duvet, it is cheaper than having it dry cleaned, so there!

These days parents are expected to pay towards their children's schooling, so a little more for drug testing, which I doubt is that expensive, should be on the cards, imo. Besides which, if drugs are as big a problem in schools as my grandson's experience suggests it is, the Government should be setting up a preventative scheme and putting some money towards it, which will hopefully save the NHS some cash in the long run if it prevent kids getting addicted to drugs.

I think it is fraught with all sorts of practical difficulties, some parents will ask (with good reason) why should I pay for something that I know I don't need. Others won't pay because they think there is some truth in it, all of which means you have to make it an across the board operation. So all kids must be tested. How do you go about organizing that?

The testing would have to be done by a reputable agency to ensure the results are verifiable and estimates vary between £35 and £80 per test. So say you manage to get all tests done for £50. A school of 1000 has to find an extra £50,000. Now you suggest parents pay this, that would be easy for some but really difficult for those on lower incomes. Secondly how often do you do these tests. Yearly? Every six months? How would you ensure you were even capturing illegal drug use?

The more I think about it the more difficult and costly it sounds to me.

[Nearly Sane]

If you say so.

Well given you want some form of dugs testing, could you show any figures, and explain how it would work?

[Aruntraveller]

If you say so.

If I say what?

I googled the cost of tests and looked at the range of prices. I took a school of a fairly average size and did some basic multiplication, I indicated why there might be resistance on the part of some parents. I pointed out that there is a problem with time frames and generally indicated the difficulties such a proposal poses.

And your counter argument is "If you say so" ?

Colour me not surprised.

[ad_orientem]

Whilst I wouldn't encourage it, and having tried most drugs myself, I could think of plenty more worse things than smoking a bit of cannabis.

[Anchorman]

Whilst I wouldn't encourage it, and having tried most drugs myself, I could think of plenty more worse things than smoking a bit of cannabis.

Tell that to my nieghbour across the street.
She buried her son last year - seventeen years old - dead from cannabis psychosis.

[Aruntraveller]

That says it all!

It really doesn't.

I have a friend who has smoked it all of his adult life and he is fine. Am I now allowed to say "That says it all". Of course not. Stop being so simplistic.

[Nearly Sane]

That says it all!

Though it says nothing at all about the practicalities about your proposal for regular drug testing in schools.

[ad_orientem]

Indeed terrible but at the same time very rare. As I said, I wouldn't encourage it but I find it very hard to get too irate over smoking a spliff.

[Anchorman]

That says it all!

 

Actually, it doesn't.
The boy had left school, was working on a farm. Drug testing wouldn't have worked: he'd only taken up the drug after his first wages cae in.
As others have posted, drug testing is impractical on grounds of staffing and finance; not enough medics or paramedics to carry it out, each test far too expensive, and, given that cannaboids dissipater after a time period dependant on type consumed, tests would have to be monthly or every three weeks in order to catch each school user.
It simply wouldn't work.

[Robbie]

I too find it difficult to be irate over smoking a spliff.

The idea of doing regular drug tests on school children is impractical, far too expensive.

I doubt if many are 'doing drugs', they are probably just boasting. Maybe some have tried cannabis once or twice. I may be wrong about this but doesn't someone test positive for cannabis quite a long time after using it? I vaguely remember hearing that. In which case it wouldn't be fair, it would just show they had tried the drug but not that they are a user.

As far as I know cannabis isn't class A.

Even when I was at school young people smoked pot occasionally, they didn't grow up to be drug addicts.

[Nearly Sane]

But a lot do!

What % and what % would be stopped with your proposal for drug testing is schools?

[Robbie]

But a lot do!

Most don't! You don't know who is going to be a drug addict as an adult any more than I do. Plenty start taking drugs and or drinking when they are out at work.

Get real about a little bit of pot smoking in school. School kids can't afford to be pot heads, it's an expensive business. The most they can do is a little bit on occasions.

[Nearly Sane]

I am getting real, it is SHOCKING that children are taking any sort of illegal drug. I am also shocked that others don't seem to find it shocking too.

I am beginning to wish I had never started this thread now. I will say no more on the topic.

Just writing SHOCKING in capitals isn't an argument for having some sort of enforced drug tests in schools.

[Rhiannon]

The hang-up on illegal drugs here is interesting. Most kids will choose their drug of choice through watching their parents unwinding with a bottle of wine in the evenings or spending the weekend drinking with friends in the pub, and it will be socially acceptable, affordable and, for the most part, completely legal.

[ad_orientem]

The hang-up on illegal drugs here is interesting. Most kids will choose their drug of choice through watching their parents unwinding with a bottle of wine in the evenings or spending the weekend drinking with friends in the pub, and it will be socially acceptable, affordable and, for the most part, completely legal.

👍

[Robbie]

👍 X 2

[jeremyp]

 
Also what drastic action do you propose?

Cut their goolies off!

[Nearly Sane]

Cut their goolies off!

My hat is doffed