SCOTS parents want teenagers to be given random drug tests in schools, according to new research.<\/p>\n
More than three quarters (78%) of Scottish parents said they would support the move in a bid to stamp out the growing use of drugs in the playground.<\/p>\n
The research found that almost all parents (95%) said they were worried about the problem.<\/p>\n
Two-thirds (65%) said they backed random testing – because they are afraid schools are not doing enough to tackle the drugs problem.<\/p>\n
They want education leaders to introduce random urine tests for recreational drugs such as cannabis, ecstasy and cocaine.<\/p>\n
Researchers questioned more than 600 parents and guardians of secondary school teenagers across the UK.<\/p>\n
Nearly half of those questioned thought testing was the most effective way to reduce drug abuse among teenagers.<\/p>\n
But fewer than one in five thought information campaigns worked.<\/p>\n
One in nine wanted an increased police presence near schools that have a problem with drugs.<\/p>\n
The poll comes after a study by Glasgow Universities Centre for Drugs Misuse last year found that Scots children as young as ten have taken cocaine and heroin.<\/p>\n
And it revealed that hundreds of primary school pupils regularly smoke cannabis and experiment with other Class A drugs.<\/p>\n
The most recent study was carried out for drug-test supplier Euromed by market research company, 1FF Research.<\/p>\n
Euromed sells tailored test kits – which provide results in under ten minutes – to clients such as NHS trusts and the UK Prison Service.<\/p>\n
A spokeswoman for Euromed said: Drug testing in schools is a very sensitive issue and they must be careful if they are considering introducing them.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut random testing has proven a successful way to tackle drug misuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis research shows how drugs in secondary schools are a worry to parents and how parents are not confident that schools are successfully tacking the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cIn Scotland there was by far the highest concern among all UK parents about drugs being available in secondary schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd more parents in Scotland backed their own children being randomly drug tested.\u201d<\/p>\n
SCOTS parents want teenagers to be given random drug tests in schools, according to new research. More than three quarters (78%) of Scottish parents said they would support the move in a bid to stamp out the growing use of drugs in the playground. The research found that almost all parents (95%) said they were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parents","category-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2030\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}