Student Athletes Should Never be Tested for Drugs

In many high schools around the country, student athletes are using drugs. “The percent of students that have drunk alcohol is 72.5% while the number of students who have used marijuana is 36.8%” (Report: Nearly Half of High School Students Using Drugs, Alcohol). The students believe that since they are athletes that they do not need to abide by the rules because they feel more superior and that the narcotic will not hurt or affect them. Implementing random drug tests for athletes will create a positive image and not hurt others or themselves. Schools need to have drug tests for student athletes because drugs effect relationships, using drugs have consequences, and lastly they have a major effect on the body.

Drug testing athletes or even just college students is against the students and Linn State’s fourth amendment rights. College students have the right to be secure in themselves, house, and papers. “On the con side of the argument, the American Civil Liberties Union along with with students attending Linn State say that drug testing of all college students is against the law and violation of their fourth amendment right” (Clabaugh 3). According to Jason Clabaugh, students have a right to not be drug tested because of their fourth amendment of having the right to be secure of themselves. Also sometimes test can lead to false positives. “On the con side of testing the college student athlete population, drug tests can often lead to false positives” (Clabaugh 4). Although, it’s likely to be a false positive it might not

The use of illegal substances is rapidly increasing in the college sports due to the expansion of supplements used by athletes that are being banned. In a study done, athletes were asked if illicit drugs would negatively impact their performance. Majority of them responded “yes”, their main reasoning being; the effects of illicit drugs were both mental and physically damaging. Illicit drugs come in many forms, but the testing procedures are all the same for any substance. There is almost always a consequence with the use of prohibited substances. Drug testing is appropriate to help ensure the safety of student athletes while they participate in intercollegiate contests. (Krotee, M 555).

Athletes should take drug tests because they might be cheating in their games and competitions. They should take their tests at least once every month and one before they compete in a game to make sure it's fair for everyone. Throughout the years, there have been cases in which the athlete uses drugs right before entering a competition like the Olympics. An African-American woman who was competing in the Olympics used drugs to get an advantage from all the other athletes, and she won the gold medal all the time. Once she was about to retire, she confessed that she was using drugs the whole time and was stripped of all of her gold medals that she won while using her drugs. If she actually tried to win the medal fairly, she could've done it

Drugs in sports is becoming a problem everywhere. “Another 26-year old athlete died of liver cancer after taking a number of different types of steroids over a four year period ” (Drugs and…). This is significant because this shows how dangerous drugs can be. If we have drug testing in schools this student could still be alive and would have stopped drugs before it got bad. The evidence points to the fact that drugs are a major health risk that is very concerning. In some cases taking drugs can even lead to death. In addition, another situation took place that affected a college student named Bob. Bob tried everything to gain weight so he could play football, so he chose to try steroids like everyone else. Steroids got him to play professional football, but horrible things were happening to him. He was having serious health problems. Bob quit drugs and is lucky to be alive (Drugs and…). This connects to the fact that doing drugs is a major

Rains, B. (2009). Testing Student Athletes for Drugs is Appropriate. In C. Watkins, Sports and Athletes (pp. 192-196). Detroit: Greenhaven Press.

Mandatory Drug testing within schools reverses the legal principle of innocent until proven guilty and also violates the Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution. Without suspicion of drug use, there is no probable cause to test student-athletes for drugs, thus violating the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unlawful searches. Drug testing student-athletes without acquiring sufficient evidence to base accusations on, is essentially asking them to provide the evidence of their own guilt which violates the Fifth Amendment right to protect

Do we really want student-athletes replacing hard work with steroids? That’s like cheating on a test. For instance, many have been abusing drugs in a way to make their performance on the court or field better. This is a practice athletes have been in for years to make them a better player or asset to the team. All who are participating in athletics should be guaranteed a safe and fair game instead of worrying about those taking a daily dose of drugs for their own pleasure. These actions they are taking are not only dangerous and unfair, but illegal. For those who do participate in the consumption of drugs, their should be a formidable punishment. Although some uninformed people might say drug testing is an unnecessary waste of time and money,

These are the main reasons I believe high school sports players should be drug tested. The effects of marijuana or any other type of drug is bad with sports. If they were drug tested, it would help the team improve as a

With high school budgets dropping, and more athletes joining the sports teams the possibility of drug testing every athlete becomes less likely daily. School’s budgets cannot afford to test every student athlete. With prices rising and budgets dropping, the 100,000-dollar price tag to test 600 Florida high school students doesn’t look too appealing to the schools budget, which is why the program fell through shortly after. Also, in 2007, high schools in Texas performed more than 10,000 drug tests on student athletes but the program shrunk to thirty-three percent of its original size (“How Effective”). Knowing that the worth of a single dollar is plummeting and prices at an all-time high, is drug testing our student athletes necessary? To just test 600 students (the size of some senior classes) in Florida is roughly 100,000-dollars. Seeing schools waste money like that on unproven programs with limited results is shameful. Drug testing students in mass quantities or even testing at all is costing high schools a pretty penny and all drug testing programs are failing because of lack of funding. To get more in depth, to break down each individual testing price can cost schools a fortune. Now know, the cost of a single test can range between 15-35 dollars, which could lead to tens of thousands annually. Over an eight-year period Texas high schools spent an estimated 10 million dollars on urine tests for student athletes

In recent years the number of athletes caught using drugs has increased dramatically. The use of a illegal or unprescribed drugs can cause serious problems and unfairness in many ways. Certain drugs can cause harm to the user and the people around the user, most student athletes do not even know what they are putting into their bodies. With all the risks many persons propose student athletes to be drug tested at random.

Athletes using performance enhancing drugs has been a problem since the late 1990’s. For the athletes the use of steroids are cheap, easy to access, and effective; that is until now. Collegiate Student Athletes should be drug tested every season for illegal substances before they are allowed to play. There are many reasons why these athletes should be tested, such as the negative effect steroids have on their bodies, the drugs are illegal to use, and if caught using these drugs the athletes careers could be over.

A national survey stated that American teens use drug to perform better at athlete events; They also use drugs to improve their looks. Another confidential survey that was taken, in 2013, used 3,705 high school students. The survey’s results showed that possibly 11% of the students used synthetic HGH once at the minimum amount, and the amount of students taking steroids increases from 5% to 7% perecent while doing the survey. Drugs can be dangerous that’s why school officials and parents are worried. This drug issue might cause student athletes to get drug tested.

Many high schools across the country have brought much attention to the idea of giving random drug tests to students in high school. The newfound interest in student drug testing may be as a result of recent polls, which have shown an increase in drug use among high school students. Many teachers, parents, and members of school comities are for the drug testing, while most students and some parents feel that this would be a violation of students rights as Americans, which is true.

Introducing the fear to students on drug testing that will directly affect them, will most likely decrease the use of drugs being abused. The president of the Institute for Behavior and Health explains that RSDT (Random Student Drug Test) could be used on any athlete, any day, and any time without notice (DuPont et al ¶6). Making the testing random will help eliminate any cheating or strategizing that the students who would test positive could be doing. Keith Ablow, MD and psychiatrist published an article in 2011 said that, both varsity and junior varsity teams should be tested with results kept private (¶6). To only test Varsity athletes would be unacceptable because JV athletes could cause just as much harm to athletes around them as to themselves. To make it fair and because kids follow by example, coaches would test also (Ablow ¶ 9). When a positive test appears, there should be punishment, but not to the extent of expulsion. Guidelines to RSDT programs say it is not supposed to end up in punishment for drug tests (DuPont et al ¶25). Not giving any punishment would defeat the purpose because then kids would not care to stop their drug use. Random drug tests to not only student-athletes, but students in general will promote a healthier lifestyle without drug use (DuPont et al ¶5). Students should be on edge not knowing if they are going to be tested or