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MU Schools of Nursing and Medicine to Start Drug Testing Incoming Students

A new drug testing policy for University of Missouri medical and nursing students has one attorney arguing for an immediate stop.

By Kelly Carlson (Columbia, Mo.)

The MU School of Medicine and School of Nursing required mandatory drug testing for its students for the first time this year. Columbia attorney Dan Viets said the tests are unconstitutional, a violation of the Fourth Amendment which protects Americans from unreasonable searches.

“A search is what drug tests have been held to be. They’re the most intimate type of search, a search of your bodily fluids," he said.  "And unless there is a good reason to believe that the individual they want to search has done something wrong then we generally are protected under the Constitution from such searches. ”

Alison Martin, director of admissions for the MU School of Medicine, said this testing aims to ensure safety for patients. She also said regular University Hospital employees have been drug tested since 2004. Viets said he will take this matter to federal court if the policy is not revoked.