Condition the kids early to invasive testing for any arbitrary reason. I am glad that I only have a few years of full time employment left. My workplaces increasingly have metal detectors at the entrances and exits. Freedom dies a little with each installation.
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Lots of prescription and OTC drugs can lead to false positives:
https://www.goodrx.com/blog/these-15-medications-can-cause-a-false-positive-on-drug-tests/
(They increased the number to 20.)
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Well, that part is a good thing. /not really sarcasm
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I’m going to repost a comment from another discussion on this policy.
Beyond the issues of equity, rights, and bodily autonomy, mass testing is a fucking terrible way to catch drug use. Given there’s something like a 5-10% false positive and a 5-10% false negative on a lot of cheap urine tests the statistics of large populations get in your way. Something like 20% of students nationally have used marijuana in the past month. So if you look at a student population the size of Badin at about 600, and just focusing on marijuana, there are about 120 students who have used marijuana in the past month and 480 who haven’t. Mass testing will tell you that somewhere between 24 and 48 innocent students were getting high and will let somewhere between 6 and 12 who did get high off without being caught. You’ll be falsely accusing almost half as many innocent students as you’re catching guilty students. The numbers get even more out of whack with less common drugs or drugs with a shorter reliable test window, like cocaine, where you will be punishing far more innocent students than guilty ones.
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As a parent I would be furious that tuition money was being used for drug testing. As a student I would be delighted by the opportunity to sell my pee.
And what about underage drinking? Isn’t that still what gets kids in the most trouble these days? Pee tests can’t detect alcohol use after 12-24 hours.
No need to take OTC drugs. I personally would make a point of baking a poppy-seed based cake at least once a week and inviting all class to have at least a small piece.
Or, at very least have something with poppy-seed at least twice a week and then suing the school and testing kit manufacturer when I fail the test. Similar to what that kid did when he pretended to take drugs (it was candy and he later told them he was playing) in front of his school laptop at home who later sued the school when he was accused by the vice-principal of taking drugs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School_District#Robbins_lawsuit
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Pee and saliva tests can’t tell the difference between say, methamphetamine and dexamphetamine but a blood test can. I have a letter I keep in my car that explains my medication and how it can trigger a positive result in a roadside drug test.
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if there had been drug testing when i was a teen i would have had to put off doing drugs all semester and cram them all in the night before the big test.
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