Drug Testing Kids
Academy of Pediatrics Hates It
By Daniel Muniz

The American Academy of Pediatrics, in updating its policy of drug testing minors by parents and school officials, has come down firmly against the practice. Stated in their trade journal, Pediatrics:

Drug testing also creates a counterproductive climate of “resentment, distrust and suspicion” between children and their parents or school administrators.

The Academy also explains that screening is prone to producing false positives due to certain foods and medications and that there are web sites that provide instructions to defeat testing. The tests can also be circumvented because certain illicit drugs cannot be detected or that kids can simply refrain from using drugs if they know that they are going to be screened or use the more dangerous that evades detection. They also insist that drug testing does not decrease illicit drug use among the youth and because such tests are designed for adults they are inappropriate for minors.

About the only thing that they do suggest is for a concerned parent to take their child to their primary care physician.

So in other words, drug testing kids is a bad idea and parents and school officials shouldn’t do it.

First of all, this is a bunch of tommyrot.

The American Academy of Pediatrics ought to stick to medicine and leave parenting to parents. Of course drug testing isn’t perfect and it doesn’t matter if you are an adult or a child. You get what you pay for so a cheap screening kit is not going to be as accurate as a more expensive one or as a blood test. But that’s not the point. Even if it produces a false positive, that result could be escalated to taking a better test.

The bottom line is that it is not the American Academy of Pediatrics’ business for the reason “why” drug testing is being done. The moral and philosophical aspect of screening solely belongs to parents and to the local community and it is up to them to make the decisions. But what is most ironic is that the Academy feels that drug testing creates a climate of mistrust between parent and child but then they go on to say what kids can do to beat the drug test. It is almost as if they feel that it is alright for kids to be the liars but it is inappropriate for parents to question that.

These doctors are definitely out of touch with reality.

Adolescence is perhaps the toughest part of growing up. There is a lot of conflict, antagonism, and rebellion among teenagers and closing your eyes doesn’t make serious problems go away. It is perfectly natural for a parent “not” to take their own kid’s word as an honest answer. Teenagers are manipulative liars and they are quite adept at saying exactly what needs to be said or saying what someone wants to hear. That is why it is ludicrous and perhaps even irresponsible for a parent not to be skeptical of their offspring.

Additionally, many teachers insist that teenagers are also chameleons. They are highly skilled at deception and trickery. All too many times naïve parents will angrily confront an educator adamantly claiming that their child could never do what they have been accused of even though a teacher has seen it with his or her own very eyes. Educators know full well that kids behave differently when they are surrounded by their peers or are fighting for acceptance. And this conduct is in no way limited to hoodlums but it also includes the “gifted and talented” and the preacher’s kids as well.

So is it morally wrong to be skeptical of your child’s integrity? Are you better off being fat, dumb, and happy when you ask your children if they are smoking crack and they emphatically tell you no even though there are already so many red flags and alarm bells going off in your head?

That is the wrong question to ask because it takes maturity to develop the universal values of integrity, responsibility, and honesty and there are plenty of kids who just are not at that level yet. Also, children are not adults who wear smaller clothes even though there are plenty of people in society who believe so. They require a lot of guidance, nurturing, and counseling that only a parent can give.

But more importantly, it is the parent’s right to intervene if they suspect drug use especially because they don’t want their children to become junkies and ruin their lives. The same goes for local communities since drugs have already ravaged too many kids and intervention at an early stage is perhaps to best way to thwart this dilemma.

As for drug screening being ineffective in stemming illicit drug use, that too is a bunch of horse hockey!

A parent is perhaps the most important tool available to fight drug abuse. And if testing provides them with the ability to verify that such drug use is indeed going on, then they can actually do something to curtail and eliminate it. Of course such intervention may not be 100 percent effective but parental involvement can go a long way to help a child to stop using drugs. And parents can only intervene if they know that drug use is actually happening.

As for schools administering drug tests to students participating in extra curricular activities, the Supreme Court ruled that such screenings are legal. Drug testing provides an excellent incentive to encourage kids to avoid drugs because failing a screening will boot them off a team. And of course it is not going to be 100 percent effective but it doesn’t have to be as long as it can become a useful tool in helping some kids avoid drug use.

The American Academy of Pediatrics needs to get a grip on reality. They should stop encouraging parents to abdicate their parental responsibilities. Kids are excellent liars and it is up to parents to sift truth from falsehood if a need ever arises.

Any opinions or views expressed herein belong solely to the author and does not represent any employer, organization, political party, governmental agency, or any other entity and do not necessarily reflect the views of the site owner or its participants.