School children in Paris will be subject to mandatory drug testing in the classroom after the Île-de-France regional council approved measures to conduct marijuana drug tests on students. The new rules will allow authorities to conduct swab tests to detect cannabis and breathalyzer tests to detect whether students have consumed alcohol. Vice News reports: Addressing the regional council Thursday, Agnès Evren, the region’s vice-president who is also in charge of education, said that cannabis was “a major cause of school dropout, lack of motivation, concentration issues, and academic failure.” “Ten percent of teens in the Île-de-France smoke more than one joint a day, a figure that has more than doubled in three years,” she said. “We cannot remain powerless in the face of this scourge.” Under the new guidelines, principals will also be able to carry out breathalyzer tests in school. “Some principals tell me they’ve seen 10th grade students showing up wasted at 10 AM,” Evren claimed. The saliva tests to detect weed use will be administered by medical personnel in schools, and the results will be subject to doctor-patient confidentiality. Students over 18 will be given their test results. In the case of students who are still minors, the [...]
