Students randomly tested for alcohol in middle school seem less likely to drink and use drugs during those middle grades, and they are less likely to drink when they get older, a six-year study of New Jersey students finds—although researchers caution that random drug testing isn't a panacea for drug- and alcohol-use prevention.
The study tracked about 3,500 middle school students from the 2006-07 school year through this school year. Researchers at Fairleigh Dickinson University, in Teaneck, N.J., and from the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey found that middle school students who had been tested at any point in 6th through 8th grades for drug and alcohol use didn't follow one pattern typical of most high school students.
