"It's not snowing in Galway, there is a blizzard".
The legality surrounding drug testing in schools is being examined by Galway County Council.
HSE clinical specialist in addiction Joe Treacy told a Joint Policing Committee yesterday that "it's not snowing in Galway, there is a blizzard" when it comes to cocaine use.
Randomly testing children at school is one proposal which has been suggested in a bid to tackle the increase of drug use in the county.
He said recent screenings of drug users in the county revealed cocaine with a potency of up to 94 per cent and a strain of Moroccan cannabis with previously unseen levels of THC (the main psychoactive compound in the drug).
The JPC’s Crime Prevention and Personal Safety subcommittee recommended Galway County Council and local gardaí examine the possibility of introducing random drug tests in schools.
Chairperson of this subcommittee, Cllr Michael Maher (Fine Gael), said random drug tests could not be introduced into schools without the cooperation of school principals and parents.
“This is something that we could start through GRETB on a pilot basis and then bring it to Education and Training Board Ireland and see could we make this into a national thing,” he said.
“I’m sure that hundreds of parents out there would not mind their children being tested for drugs. I think 95 per cent of parents would allow this to go ahead”.
