Expert’s Discussion on Current Affairs

Should mandatory drug testing on adolescent be implemented?

News extract

A4 Hong Kong Daily News 9 March 2009
Survey reports: At least 79 schools have students abusing drugs in school
A school organization that provide housing for adolescent drug addicts and school services conducted a survey and found out that students in at least 79 schools are involved in drugs in Hong Kong. Almost 20% of the schools belong to the Band 1 and Band 2, and 39 schools have students selling drugs on school premise.
An adolescent who came out of drug abuse said that he was enrolled in two mainstream secondary schools. One of them was an English secondary school and the other was a Band 5 secondary school. He said there were students taking drugs at both of the schools he went to, but the students in the past were not as bold as today’s students. He pointed out that drug abuse already occurred at school 7, 8 years ago. Drug taking students do not ask for help from social workers and since it is difficult for adults to tell from appearance on who’s taking drugs, he advocates for mandatory drug testing.

Current Affair Discussion

Sally Wong (黃碧兒), Commissioner for Narcotics：

There are flaws in law enforcement. We cannot take action if they turn up clean in body searches. Implementation of mandatory drug testing can effectively help us find young drug abusers.

Democratic Legislative Councilor Nelson Wong Sing Chu (黃成智):

Mandatory drug testing plan should not be limited to school premise since it would make adolescents think that they could take drugs once out of their school campuses. If we were to use the method of mandatory testing, it must be carried out comprehensively.

Hong Kong Association of Heads of Secondary Schools ChairmanMichael Wong Wai-yu (黃謂儒)：

Drug testing will have a warning effect on students, but there need to be complementary support and ways to help teachers’ workload. Drug testing should not be limited to students inside school campus. We should pay reference to anti-smoking measures and set an age limit to carry out random testing on adolescents.

Questions

  1. The problem of adolescent drug abuse has already entered school premises in Hong Kong. Try to find evidence from the source.
  2. With reference to the source, what would be the concerns if mandatory drug testing was to be implemented?
  3. ‘Hong Kong should carry out mandatory drug testing on adolescent.’ Do you agree with the statement? Explain your answer with reference to the source and your own knowledge.

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