The report is not entirely positive, however. To quote RAND DPRC’s summary:

The author could not determine whether this effect persisted over time, but he cited a different RAND study which observed that probationers randomly assigned to biweekly drug testing were less likely to have a full-time job during the twelve-month follow-up than those assigned to no testing. Thus, this new study raises fresh questions about the dynamic and differential effects of a common criminal justice practice.

The chart above shows that young black parolees did not show an increased likelihood to be employed or in school. While drug testing may increase overall likelihood for parolee success, parole violation for drug crimes must also exacerbate the revolving door approach to criminal justice.

The proportion of 8th graders reporting use of an illicit drug at least once in the 12 months prior to the survey was 24 percent in 1996 but has fallen to 13 percent by 2007, a drop of nearly half. The decline has been less among 10th graders, from 39 percent to 28 percent between 1997 and 2007, and least among 12th graders, a decline from the recent peak of 42 percent in 1997 to 36 percent this year.

The study breaks down trends by drug, with heroin, crack, and OxyContin all showing no decline in the 2007 survey. Concerning anabolic steroids, the study notes:

Monitoring the Future tracked a fairly sharp increase in the use of anabolic steroids by male teens in the late 1990s, with peak levels reached in 1999 among 8th-grade males, in 2000 among 10th-grade males, and in 2001 and 2002 among 12th-grade males.

Since those peak years, the annual prevalence rate has dropped by more than half among the 8th and 10th grader males (to 1.1 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively), and by 40 percent among 12th-grade males (to 2.3 percent annual prevalence in 2007).

Also covered where alcohol and tobacco usage, usage of both having decreased in the 2007 study.