Drug testing and child protection: Race, ethics and the production of knowledge

The issue of drug testing - as a means of deterring or punishing drug use rather than assessing the purity or quality of substances - remains under-researched, despite its impact in a range of policy fields, including welfare, child protection, education and criminal justice. Resistance to testing on ethical grounds has mainly taken the form of challenges to its effectiveness or validity, and its impact on the human right to privacy. In this paper, using the example of child protection, I argue that we need a richer understanding of the ethics of drug testing beyond legalistic concerns, important though these may be, given its increasing use within global drug policy programmes. While it is essential to ask whether testing 'works', and if it is fair, this also means considering what it generates, for example in relation to ideas about 'risk', 'drugs' and 'safety'.