Enda’s school drugs proposal failed test in US

FINE Gael leader Enda Kenny’s proposal for mandatory drug testing of schoolchildren is reactionary and anti-youth.

Does he want checkpoints outside every school? Randomly stop every kid on the street? Turn teachers and principals into law enforcement officers?

This is a recipe for trouble, and is yet another of those crackpot ideas politicians often float before an election.

There are many ways to tackle drugs, but this is not one of them.

It’s typical of the type of failed approach in the US where people with even small amounts of drugs, even kids with soft drugs, are locked up, often for long periods.

Yet it hasn’t made one bit of difference to the drugs problem there, which is a hell of a lot worse than it is here.

Paul Kinsella

53 Lorcan Grove

Santry

Dublin 9