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The news that random drug testing will be done in all public schools nationwide by March this year came in the wake of reports that the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) recently cleared prosecutors accused of dropping the case against the "Alabang Boys."
This development may help boost the sagging morale of prosecutors whose ranks took a thrashing over allegations of bribe offers in the millions of pesos. But 1 million urine samples of high school students won't clear doubts that the criminal justice system doesn't catch the big fish in the illegal drug trade.
Recently, Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) chairman Tito Sotto III said the government would initially pay for the testing kits and that students who refuse to undergo tests will not be sanctioned.
He also said these drug tests will be done by the Department of Education (DepEd) and related agencies and not the police or the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
Still there are fears that, like in the Alabang Boys case, the police and the PDEA may manipulate drug test results, a convenient way to extort money from students.
There are grave concerns about how the drug tests will be conducted and its potential for abuse.
Urine samples can be switched. Test results can be manipulated.
Just observe the hole-in-the-wall health centers that abound near the Land Transportation Office where adult drivers have to pay for a certification that they were tested for drug use.
Users anticipating a test can also abstain from their vice or flush it out of their system in time for the exercise.
Then again, random drug testing is also known to produce false-positive results. A person can show misleading positive results after having taken over the counter medicine like Ibuprofen, a common pain reliever.
The whole system of managing the information that comes out of a surprise drug test is supposed to be conducted in strict confidence and under controlled terms for results to be reliable.
Imagine the damage to a youngster's self confidence or reputation, when rumor spreads in school that he tested positive in the screening test? (A confirmation test would have to be made before one concludes that illegal drugs were found in one's system.)
Another cause for concern is when school officials conduct drug tests with specific targets in mind, namely students they consider troublemakers. The test would be a convenient means to bar enrollment or defer graduation of an undesirable.
A lot of assurances will be have to be given that the right of students to privacy, to refuse the test and not to incriminate oneself without due process are guarded.
We're talking about minors and teenagers here, the victims of the drug trade. Now wasn't the idea to go after big-time traffickers?
