School to start testing students for drugs

In Nässjö?

My wife went to that school - could explain a lot!

why not test politicians for drugs and alcohol?

In principle I would normally be against this.

However the number of kids taking drugs is far to high. This is one approach of many that needs to be taken to start tackling the drug problem.

Also they need to start cracking down on the low level peddlers, the middle men, the money launders and the producers. Leaving any of them out is not tackling the drugs problem seriously.

Also legalisation of drugs such as natural forms of marijuana would go some way to breaking down organised crime in that area and freeing up resources to concentrate on the more dangerous drugs.

Thats a positive step. By the way why can one be against it? Are you people inconfident? This breeds serious inconfidence. Whats the matter with you people? So much of reserve nature that is typical of Sweden is regretful. Look at US, Japan, ...

Since drug abuse forms part of a society's ' duty of care' towards it's young, and education in these matters is tackled seriously in schools,where is the problem? Drug pushers invade the 'sanctity of youth' with impunity, I see no good reason why random testing to assist young people overcome this evil is so questionable.

If a young person was sick with some disease or bacteria, would there be objections to blood tests? I think not.

What is drug addiction but a sickness?

If I were a parent, I would welcome this.

I don not agree with random testing 'just in case' of all school pupils which is the case at hand.

Schools already have powers for drug testing where there is a suspicion that students are under the influence

Schools, police and social services already have far-reaching powers to intervene in a student's life and force drug tests if the student is suspected of drug use. Nassjö is acting illegally in this manner, driven by an absolutely hysterical and paranoid (are these school officials on drugs themselves?) view of the so-called "drug problem".

The fact is that Sweden already has adequate systems in place to deal with drug use - thus it is a paranoid waste of society's money to start drug testing in this manner. They are also hiding behind the term "voluntary" to give them legitimacy under the law, but anyone who has experience with how Swedish officials deal with drugs knows that any student that refuses to be tested will come under suspicion by both school officials and fellow students. Thus these tests do represent illegal coercion.

Nässjö needs to simply follow the law as it already exists and only test students already suspected of drug use. Swedish society in general also needs to switch it's focus from anti-cannabis measures to anti-hard drug measures as the current excess focus on cannabis (80% of drug-prevention work in Sweden is geared towards cannabis) drives people into alcohol abuse and other hard-drug use.

Another reason these tests won't work is that in reality the only drug kids have to be worried about testing positive for is cannabis since cannabis use is detectable in the urine for a lot longer than most hard drugs. That sends the message to the kids in the know to skip the soft drugs and go straight to the hard drugs if you want to make sure to pass the drug tests.

@Gwrhyr: not entirely sure about your last sentence. Go straight to hard drugs. I know a lot of people smoking pot, but say no to hard drugs. (im from the Netherlands thats why i know so many people smoking pot probably). But most people here thing pot is not bad, or maybe the same like a cigarette. But harddrugs like xtc, speed, coke, thats sooo bad. But in fact, both is just stupid to use.

Anyway, I would welcome this on any school.

There are a lot of rektors in Sweden that I would not trust with the results of medical tests

@BrammLinus, I didn't mean to imply that all people who smoke pot go on to hard drugs - or even consider them. In fact I know no pot smoker who uses any other drug, and I know many pot smokers who don't even drink alcohol at all, and definitely don't smoke tobacco. It's sort of the health-drug of choice among the health-conscious people I know.

My point was that in a society where rational knowledge of different psychoactive substances is not disseminated to the population it can lead people to make worse decisions. Many students in Sweden are basically taught that all drugs are the same thing: knark or droger and that for something to be knark or droger it must be extremely physically addictive, it must change your personality extremely, and it must be easy to overdose and die from. When students are taught that all drugs are the same and all are dangerous and then they smoke cannabis and find out that it is even safer and has less side-effects than alcohol, they either start to distrust society and authority for lying to them, and/or think that they were lied to about other things and thus think other drugs aren't as dangerous as they were told. Thus some students could be told by their "cool" peers that they should take ecstasy or some other, harder drug and avoid cannabis in order to be more likely to pass the drug tests, as traces of hard drugs leave the body much faster than cannabis.

Total Waste of School Money! Voluntary? You will have a 100% clean drug free student population. I would tell my kids to "just say NO to drug testing and I would be right behind them."

@Gwrhyr - "Schools, police and social services already have far-reaching powers to intervene in a student's life and force drug tests if the student is suspected of drug use. Nassjö is acting illegally in this manner, driven by an absolutely hysterical and paranoid (are these school officials on drugs themselves?) view of the so-called "drug problem"."

Totally agree! Even the police have the right to take blood from any suspected drug user just to prove they are indeed using drugs!

@Gwrhyr - "...it is a paranoid waste of society's money to start drug testing in this manner. They are also hiding behind the term "voluntary" to give them legitimacy under the law, but anyone who has experience with how Swedish officials deal with drugs knows that any student that refuses to be tested will come under suspicion by both school officials and fellow students. Thus these tests do represent illegal coercion."

Took the words right out of my mouth! I love your emphasis on "paranoid waste" of money. OUR TAX money gone to waste!

@Gwrhyr - "Nässjö needs to simply follow the law as it already exists and only test students already suspected of drug use. Swedish society in general also needs to switch it's focus from anti-cannabis measures to anti-hard drug measures as the current excess focus on cannabis (80% of drug-prevention work in Sweden is geared towards cannabis) drives people into alcohol abuse and other hard-drug use."

I do not use cannabis but I am definitely in favor of legalizing it. Tax it and regulate it! AND STOP EQUATING cannabis use with hard drug use! They are not equal. My observations are that alcohol is much worse than cannabis.

@Gwrhyr - "... these tests won't work ... the only drug kids have to be worried about testing positive for is cannabis since cannabis use is detectable in the urine for a lot longer than most hard drugs. That sends the message to the kids ... skip the soft drugs ... if you want to make sure to pass the drug tests."

Precisely! I saw this in action in the US where the kids in sports would avoid cannabis and instead got into coke and meth and alcohol because they would not be detected long term!

@Nemesis - "...Also they need to start cracking down on the low level peddlers, the middle men, the money launders and the producers. Leaving any of them out is not tackling the drugs problem seriously."

Totally agree UNFORTUNATELY Swedish law prevents "targeting" crime. The police can only CATCH people in the act! The police cannot use informants who buy the drugs and then tell the police. The police cannot do undercover buys. The police cannot even be waiting for a suspected crime to take place! It is NOT the police's fault that they are incompetent. It is the Swedish LAW that makes the police incompetent.

@Nemesis - "Also legalisation of drugs such as natural forms of marijuana would go some way to breaking down organised crime in that area and freeing up resources to concentrate on the more dangerous drugs."

Totally agree on that!

@glamshek - "... Thats a positive step. By the way why can one be against it? ..."

It is the ILLUSION of a positive step! I am against any "blanket" testing of society! It is one of those "big brother" things! In the US there are people who do not use drugs and yet lost their jobs because of FALSE POSITIVE drug tests!

Wish they would do the same here in the UK. At my son's school its very common for the kids to light up spliffs the moment they walk out of the gate at the end of the day. This happens in full view of staff, police etc, and of course nothing is ever done about it. Teachers should also be tested as there are quite a few of them who think its ok to do drugs and indeed do it themselves. In my opinion Sweden has the right attitude to drugs, zero tolerance, and as a result has statistically very low drug use compared to a lot of other European countries especially the UK, where despite them being illegal the law is seldom enforced and crude liberterian attitudes seem to prevail. The end result being a totally politically disengaged youth and a dumbed down nihilistic, hedonistic culture, which when people get fed up with it has the danger of causing a nasty and reactionary backlash.