{"id":6518,"date":"2014-12-12T12:41:08","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T12:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drogriporter.hu\/mandatory-school-drug-testing-proposal-rejected-in-hungary\/"},"modified":"2022-07-04T14:29:45","modified_gmt":"2022-07-04T12:29:45","slug":"mandatory-school-drug-testing-proposal-rejected-in-hungary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drogriporter.hu\/en\/mandatory-school-drug-testing-proposal-rejected-in-hungary\/","title":{"rendered":"Mandatory School Drug Testing Proposal Rejected in Hungary"},"content":{"rendered":"

A government politician's proposal for mandatory drug testing of teenagers has been rejected due to criticism. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

M\u00e1t\u00e9 Kocsis, the mayor of District 8 in Budapest, caused public outrage by proposing to introduce mandatory drug testing for all journalists, politicians, and schoolchildren between the ages of 8 and 18. "I am often astounded to read that numerous 'experts' talk about drug policies, when there are many of us who would instead like to hear about anti-drug policies," he wrote late Friday in his Facebook post. The ruling Fidesz party first welcomed the proposal to test teenagers, and announced that they would implement it. A few days later though, under pressure from the media and professionals, they changed their position, and are now only talking about voluntary drug testing for those children and their parents who request it.    <\/p>\n

There are several problems with mandatory school drug testing – staff at HCLU’s Drugreporter have given a number of interviews to the online, printed and broadcast media, to call public attention to these problems.<\/p>\n

\"\"
TV2 evening news about drug tests <\/strong><\/p>\n

PRIVACY<\/p>\n

First, it is unconstitutional in Hungary to test schoolchildren for drug use without the informed consent of their parents. The Fidesz party is in a position to change the constitution itself – they have two-thirds of the parliamentary seats, and have used this power in the past to adopt a constitutional amendment allowing the government to criminalise homeless people. However, it is unlikely that they will amend the constitution for drug testing. <\/p>\n

COST-EFFECTIVENESS<\/p>\n

Second, school drug testing is not cost-effective compared to other drug prevention interventions. While the Hungarian government spent approximately 200.000 Euros on drug prevention programs in 2013, a massive school drug testing program would cost millions of Euros, with possibly no or negative results. According to scientific studies on the impact of school drug testing, these programs are not effective in reducing drug use or drug-related problems among young people. In recent years, fewer and fewer professional helpers (school psychologists, school social workers, etc) have been available to work with school kids in Hungary due to the financial cuts, and in many schools it is only the police who are running prevention programs, with questionable effectiveness. In a period of financial austerity, decision makers should allocate scarce resources to programs that work! <\/p>\n