America's top drug cop endorsed drug testing of schoolchildren today as
necessary to head off future generations of abusers.
"There are tools that can make a difference" in the campaign against
drug abuse by young people, said John Walters, director of the White House Office
on Drug Control Policy. "One of those tools that I've talked to communities about is
school-based drug testing."

Walters agreed with critics who say current anti-drug efforts introduce
too many young people to the criminal justice system who might otherwise have
clean records. "I hear, and I understand. I think most of us are frustrated that in too
many neighborhoods we've had one after the other law enforcement sweeps that
brought young people into the criminal justice system.
"Why? Because those same people will give and sell drugs to other young
people., and we want to stop that. But the goal is not just to have one
generation after another harvested into the prisons of the United States. The goal is to
stabilize the system.
"I've walked into too many communities in the last 18 months where
people feel they have to watch their children be victimized. That's not true. In
schools where they have used drug testing, they have reduced drug use dramatically."
Walters' statement was his strongest to date in favor of school testing.
He made it at a Washington news conference staged to kick off his 25-city summer
tour to promote
coordination of federal, state and local anti-drug efforts (DDR, June
12, p. 94). School-based testing is very controversial, and civil liberties groups
continue to oppose it in courtrooms nationwide. However, the head of the Drug-Free  Schools
Coalition predicts that within five or 10 years it will be as common as  drug testing in the workplace

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