Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 5, 1991 TAG: 9104050649
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Gov. Wilder got it wrong this week when - in announcing creation of a task force on substance abuse and sexual assault in colleges - he said the state might want to require drug testing for all freshmen at state colleges, and random testing of upperclassmen.
That goes too far.
The governor's position was equivocal. "While I am not pushing it," he said, "I wouldn't object to drug testing. The task force would have to look into such questions as whether it would be a requirement and how Draconian is it."
It's a symbolic stance, requiring no action on his part, that proclaims Wilder's devotion to law and order. It may bother some civil libertarians, but even before Willie Horton they didn't count for much.
Indeed, it will be hard in coming months to distinguish sometimes what the potential presidential candidate says for national consumption from what the governor says for Virginia's sake.
A proposal for surveys of date-rape incidence on Virginia campuses, also made this week, was far more helpful than the drug-test trial balloon, but it was the latter idea that caught the headlines. It was a cheap and easy statement that does Wilder's political ambitions no harm.
Harm could be done to state colleges and universities, however, if anything like general drug testing were imposed. Administering tests to thousands of students would be an administrative and logistical nightmare. The expense would be enormous. And what authority would colleges have over students living off-campus?
Many students would raise constitutional questions; there might well be lawsuits. In case of positive results, appeals and follow-up tests would have to be allowed; drug tests are not infallible.
Those are the practical problems, whose potential Gov. Wilder acknowledges. Even worse would be the stigma Virginia would bring on itself as a state so suspicious of its young that it requires them to prove their innocence before they are accused - of what? And why?
Drug dealing can be a serious crime. In the work place, drug use can affect job performance, perhaps to the point of endangering others. In some areas where public safety is involved, such as transportation, drug tests are rather easily justified.
In many circumstances, however, drug tests are an unwarranted invasion of privacy. The mere use of drugs is a misdemeanor. Yet drug tests identify users, not dealers. A positive test should hardly disqualify or hamper a person from pursuing a higher education.
Drug raids on campuses are appropriate when authorities have good reason to believe there are extensive violations of the law. Testing a large group of students to learn whether they had used drugs recently would be extravagant and demeaning to both students and testers.
Surely the task force created by Gov. Wilder can find means to combat on-campus substance abuse that have more in common with education than with coercion.
by CNB