Youth group hits CHED proposal to require drug tests

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By Prince Golez, Manila Reporter
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MANILA – A youth group lambasted the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), calling their proposal to require incoming college students to undergo drug testing a “discriminatory, stigmatizing and skewed approach to solving the drug problem.”
CHED earlier said they have considered making drug tests a requirement for college freshmen admission, but will retain those currently enrolled who have tested positive for drug use.
The “unjust” mandatory drug testing proposal, said to be in line with President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs, will not solve the illegal drug problem in the country, according to the Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (SPARK).
“While random drug testing is crucial to prevent further drug dependence, a non-random mandatory one administered before a student’s admission to the school could be used as the sole benchmark on whether or not a student should be retained in school,” SPARK’s Clarissa Villegas said.
Villegas said that such policy will deprive individuals of educational opportunities and will not safeguard the incumbent students from drug use.
The group suggested that drug use should be treated as a “solvable public health issue.”
Drug addiction, they said, should be characterized by an inability to stop using a drug and failure to meet work, social or family obligations
SPARK also urged the Duterte government to focus on out-of-school youths and wage war against poverty.
“The right to education and the overarching need to eliminate poverty and other forms of exploitation should not be trumped by what it falsely seen as the worst problem in the status quo – the drug crisis,” Villegas concluded./PN
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