The prefect of Ile-de-France wrote a letter to Valérie Pécresse to express his opposition to his project to screen students in high schools.
Bad idea… The “anti-drug plan” of Valérie Pécresse does not excite the State, far from it. In a letter addressed to the president of Ile-de-France, the prefect of the region retoked the flagship measure of this plan voted last May, which consists of screening for cannabis consumption in high schools through saliva tests. imposed on pupils, by decision of school heads.
In this letter revealed by the Figaro, the prefect explains that the president exceeds her prerogatives in health and social matters, and that her measure goes against the provisions of the code of local authorities and the code of education.
A measure deemed ineffective
“A false pretext used by the government,” Judge Valérie Pécresse, quoted by AFP, who sees the state’s response as a political process aimed at harming it. Except that as soon as this proposal was issued, many players had expressed strong reservations – starting with the first concerned, the principals, who were particularly skeptical.
Doubts were thus expressed as to the feasibility of such a measure on the practical level (who will carry out these tests, knowing that school medicine depends on the ministry and not on the region?), But also on the legal level (what about minor students?) and ethics.
As for the health effectiveness of this measure, this is probably the point that generates the least debate. At the time, addictologists had already opposed this measure, which, according to them, does not allow to solve the problems of addiction, or to help pupils with educational difficulties. A few months later, their position has not changed.
“A serious question”
“What was the meaning of this screening? wonders the psychiatrist Amine Benyamina, president of the French Federation of Addictology. After the saliva test was done, what was the faculty supposed to do? We should have given ourselves the means to organize a course including before and after screening ”.
Beyond that, the philosophy of these tests differs greatly from the practices of most addiction professionals, for whom the complex problem of drug use among young people cannot be addressed through repression. , counterproductive logic in this area.
“It is a good thing that the State is opposed to this project and is committed to a real policy of taking charge of addictions,” says Amine Benyamina. It is a serious question, which cannot be treated through the effects of announcement and the untimely political reactions of the ones and the others ”.
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