US drug chief promotes random testing in schools

[T_i_B]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,,1840997,00.html

America's drug tsar raised the stakes on drug testing in schools yesterday, suggesting that it could come to be seen as normal required and "responsible behaviour" in the same way that some US schools routinely test all pupils for tuberculosis before admission.

John Walters, director of the White House's office of national drug control policy, was speaking after meeting Jim Knight, an education minister. While Mr Walters said he had no authority to comment on the UK's drug policies, he made it clear that the US would continue to promote the tough line on drugs that has interested the British government.

"Some schools in the United States say a child needs to have a TB test," he said. "It's not considered to be an invasion of privacy. It's responsible behaviour. I believe we're very close to be able to think about that in terms of substance abuse."

Up to 700 schools in the US have adopted random drug testing, he said, and one school a week was joining them.