The Bush administration considers student drug testing one of the centerpieces of its drug-prevention strategy, but the nation's leading pediatricians' group says such testing is too often inaccurate and undermines trust, Reuters reported March 5.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released an updated policy statement on drug testing this week. Since the group first adopted its drug-testing policy about a decade ago, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that testing of student athletes is constitutional, and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has aggressively pushed testing in secondary schools.

But the AAP said that errors and cheating continue to plague drug testing, and that it has not been shown to reduce youth drug use. Moreover, the group said that testing creates a climate of "resentment, distrust and suspicion" among students, parents, and school administrators.

The AAP also noted that alcohol, ecstasy and inhalants would not generally appear on drug tests, and said that some students might choose more dangerous drugs over easily detectable ones like marijuana in order to avoid testing positive.

Finally, the group noted that schools often have nowhere to send students who test positive and do have a legitimate drug problem. "A key issue at the heart of the drug-testing dilemma is the lack of developmentally appropriate adolescent substance abuse and mental health treatment," the policy noted.

Rather than drug-testing children suspected of drug use, parents should consult their primary-care physician, the AAP said.

The revised policy appears in the March 2007 issue of the journal Pediatrics.