The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy faced opposition to student drug testing at the summit they hosted today in the Seattle-Tacoma area. My op-ed in the The Seattle Post-Intelligencer generated interest from the media, leading to radio interviews with local CBS station KIRO, NPR affiliate KPLU and an extensive segment with the NPR affiliate KUOW's call-in show "The Conversation". You can listen to the NPR segments online here and here.

At the summit, our allies at the ACLU of Washington distributed copies of Making Sense of Student Drug Testing to attendees as they went into the auditorium. Several attendees did not support student drug testing and expressed their gratitude for the materials. During the legal presentation, the speaker only addressed federal law, although she did note that school districts need to consult legal counsel licensed in their jurisdiction. An ACLU affiliated lawyer kept the presenter honest by asking about the legal challenge to student drug testing currently before the Washington State Supreme Court. The presenter responded that she doesn't deal with state constitutional issues. Our ally restated that a presentation to Washington State educators should make them aware of the disputes under the Washington State Constitution.

In other efforts to ignore the challenge to student drug testing in Washington, a later presentation by a school official from New Jersey claimed that critics will say the policy is unconstitutional, but that is just their opinion.

The ONDCP is at it again in Washington with another summit in Pasco. However, through our allies from Students for Sensible Drug Policy we have a smart law student attending with materials to reach educators.