SmokeDog420
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Washington, DC: The Bush administration's 2004 "National Drug Control Strategy," released by the White House this week, inappropriately proposes spending $25 million to establish random student drug testing for high school students, and unnecessarily calls for the "compassionate coercion" of millions of otherwise law-abiding American citizens who smoke marijuana responsibly, NORML's Executive Director Keith Stroup said today.
"Suspicionless student drug testing is a humiliating, invasive practice that runs contrary to the principles of a free society where citizens are presumed innocent until proven guilty," Stroup said.
He further noted that federal research shows that drug testing in schools does not reduce or discourage student drug use. According to a recent federal study of 76,000 students by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, there is no difference in illegal drug use among students in schools that drug test versus those that do not.
Stroup also criticized the notion that recreational marijuana smokers require drug treatment. Responding to the administration's mandate that "we must create a climate in which Americans confront drug use [through] ... compassionate coercion," Stroup said, "The overwhelming majority of our nation's drug users and drug arrestees are pot smokers, most of whom do not need treatment - coerced, compassionate or otherwise." He added that the administration should abandon its current strategy of criminalizing and demonizing marijuana users, and instead implement policies such as those that have been successful in reducing cigarette smoking and drunk driving.
"As a nation we have significantly reduced the prevalence of tobacco smoking and drunk driving in recent years," he said. "We have not achieved these results by banning the use of alcohol or tobacco, or by targeting and arresting those who use them responsibly, but through honest educational campaigns. We should apply these same principles to the responsible use of marijuana."
For more information, please contact Keith Stroup of NORML at (202) 483-5500. Text of the 2004 National Drug Control Strategy is available online at:
Office of National Drug Control Policy
"Suspicionless student drug testing is a humiliating, invasive practice that runs contrary to the principles of a free society where citizens are presumed innocent until proven guilty," Stroup said.
He further noted that federal research shows that drug testing in schools does not reduce or discourage student drug use. According to a recent federal study of 76,000 students by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, there is no difference in illegal drug use among students in schools that drug test versus those that do not.
Stroup also criticized the notion that recreational marijuana smokers require drug treatment. Responding to the administration's mandate that "we must create a climate in which Americans confront drug use [through] ... compassionate coercion," Stroup said, "The overwhelming majority of our nation's drug users and drug arrestees are pot smokers, most of whom do not need treatment - coerced, compassionate or otherwise." He added that the administration should abandon its current strategy of criminalizing and demonizing marijuana users, and instead implement policies such as those that have been successful in reducing cigarette smoking and drunk driving.
"As a nation we have significantly reduced the prevalence of tobacco smoking and drunk driving in recent years," he said. "We have not achieved these results by banning the use of alcohol or tobacco, or by targeting and arresting those who use them responsibly, but through honest educational campaigns. We should apply these same principles to the responsible use of marijuana."
For more information, please contact Keith Stroup of NORML at (202) 483-5500. Text of the 2004 National Drug Control Strategy is available online at:
Office of National Drug Control Policy
