Do drug warriors really think parents matter?

A libertarian perspective on the ONDCP and teen drug testing:

In September of this year, the House of Representatives did pass the “Student and Teacher Safety Act of 2006.” The act mandates sweeping and intrusive federal search policies for local school districts “if the search is conducted to ensure that classrooms, school buildings, and school property remain free of all weapons, dangerous materials, or illegal narcotics.”

The bill would deny certain federal funds (issued under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965) to localities that fail to implement the mandate, thus forcing school districts to choose between parental involvement in search policies and federal dictates.

As for ongoing disregard for parents, last year John Walters, the federal “Drug Czar,” came to Denver to release the 2006 National Drug Control Strategy, which includes federal grants for random (read coerced) student drug testing.

According to ONDCP, “To allow a potentially drug-using student to join activities that the student finds desirable (sports, chorus, band, driving to school, etc.) with no penalty is to disserve that student and to enable his or her entry into drug use.”

So to federal drug war bureaucrats, a “potentially drug-using student” is any student not yet drug tested by the government. This sends a very powerful message to young people — mainly that before you can engage in “desirable activities” you must first prove your purity to the state through the collection and examination of your urine.