(NaturalNews) With each passing day, the nanny/police state encroaches a little further upon our freedom and the right to privacy – using the pretense of "protection" as an excuse to control and monitor every aspect of our daily lives.

One of the latest examples of this meddling mindset involves a New Jersey school district that has decided that random drug testing of middle school children is somehow a good idea.

The Lacey Township Board of Education voted on August 15 to begin a "voluntary" drug testing program for seventh and eighth grade students that will involve penalties for those who fail the randomly administered monthly tests.

Although the tests will be given only to those students who participate in sports or other extracurricular activities, and only with a parent's written consent, the program is likely to be viewed as a rather dubious one by those who support the concept of civil liberty.

From The Free Thought Project:

"The school plans to hand down stiff penalties to students who test positive — a first violation would bar a student from participation in sports and extracurriculars for 10 days, and on a second offense, the suspension would last 45 days. A third strike, unsurprisingly, bars the 'offending' student from athletics and extracurriculars permanently."

Once a student "volunteers" to participate in the program, he or she will be expected to submit to each of the tests when randomly selected, or else face the same penalties as those who fail the tests.

According to the school board, the substances tested for are likely to include "alcohol, amphetamines, barbiturates, cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy, methamphetamine, opiates and any others substance defined as a controlled dangerous substance by state law."
 

Why random drug testing of children is a bad idea

Obviously, since very few parents would want their middle school-aged children to partake in any of these substances, there are likely to be those who agree that the program is a worthwhile endeavor.

However, many experts believe that random drug testing for students is not necessarily beneficial.

From a statement published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in March 2015:

"Proponents of random drug testing refer to potential advantages such as students avoiding drug use because of the negative consequences associated with having ... positive drug test results, while opponents of random drug testing agree that the disadvantages are much greater, and can include deterioration in the student-school relationship, confidentiality of students' medical records, and mistakes in interpreting drug tests that can result in false-positive results."

False positive results commonly occur with drug testing, and legally-prescribed drugs can often produce a false positive result.

As The Free Thought Project noted, because of the potential for false positive results, such programs should be "subject to intensive scrutiny, if not outrightly banned."

Another valid criticism of random drug testing programs and the taboos associated with banned substances, is that some children may be tempted to experiment with them simply because they are prohibited.