The Influence Of Drug Testing On Student Athletes

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.

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).

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

Many athletes take drugs either for the feeling or for enhancement of their sport. What athletes may not take into much consideration is the health effects that enhancement and recreational drugs do to the human body. Many athletes

Drug use in school athletics has become a substantial problem in today’s society. With the rising pressure to succeed and the high level intensity in athletics, it does not come to a surprise that so many student–athletes are giving in to drugs. Many schools that are faced with drug use are turning to mandatory drug tests for student-athletes; however mandatory drug tests are a violation of the Fourth Amendment, the Fifth Amendment and drug testing reverses the legal principle of innocent until proven guilty. In order to protect the rights of the American people, drug testing student-athletes without suspicion and without sufficient evidence should not be introduced into school athletics due to the fact that it violates the Fourth

College athletes must make sure there body is performing as good as their mind wants to compete. All drugs should be banned in college due to it being a no brainer and they are banned for everyone. There is a controversial subject in which the extra list of “banned substances”, also known as performance enhancing drugs, are banned for college athletes, yet not for everyone of the student body. Every year more and more drugs get added to the list that college athletes can’t use or they will get tested and end up ruining their practice time, game time, and more importantly their career if they drink the wrong protein drink. Athletes should be able to drink whatever supplement they want and not have to be worried about a drug test. It isn’t fair to athletes in college when everyone else gets

Eugene Robinson from the Washington post once stated “Most fans watch sports…to see people unlike themselves perform extraordinary physical feats. The superhuman quality of professional athletes is precisely what Americans admire about them” (CITE) Drug testing was created to stop the use of performance enhancements as artificial stimulants for physical and mental enhancements. (CITE) Drugs which are used by athletes in all types of sports have many advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, laws were created to keep an equal playing field.

Steroids are the single most abused performance-enhancing substance in the history of sports. As popular as the drug may be, the DEA listed anabolic steroids as a controlled substance under the Controlled Substance Act in 1990: meaning steroids can only be prescribed by a medical professional (Parks 12). Steroids are not only creating a poor image of professional sports, they also set a terrible example for the athletic, competitive youth of this generation. Children venerate their role models - like Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds - and think the only way to be as successful as they are is to do as they do: use steroids. What the youth are too naïve to consider is that steroids do not improve agility, skill or cardiovascular capacity, and can prematurely stunt growth and destroy the liver of adolescents (ESPN). While the effects on the youth cannot be ignored, the everlasting effects on sports themselves leave a tarnished sense of distrust. Dr. Paul Finkelman stated, “Steroids undermine the integrity [of the game] by placing in doubt the skill of players, as fans assume that homers are hit because of steroids, not skill” (ProCon). The problem with making a stricter Performance Enhancing Drug (PED) testing policy is that if one substance becomes too recognizable, there will always be new, untested drugs which can cause more harm to one’s body than steroids ever would (Ropp). Random drug testing has proven successful in the past, but tests are very expensive and can sometimes be

Slowly pushing students to become addicts, drug testing high school student athletes may or may not be to blame. In Facts & Statistics on Random Drug Testing of High School Students, Dr. M.H. Davis stated, “In the early 1990s, many school districts began to look into drug testing as a way to curb student drug use, which led to two U.S. Supreme Court cases involving student privacy. The court upheld the constitutionality of drug testing student athletes in 1995, and in 2002, the court expanded high school drug testing policies to include all students who participate in a competitive extracurricular activity. In those rulings, the court stated deterring student drug use was more important than privacy” (Davis). Drug testing high school 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.

Even though drug testing is very expensive, ALL high school’s athletes should be tested because drugs are bad for your health and very addictive. A simple drug test could save many lives. Many schools around deny the request to drug test their athletes for the simple conclusion that the cost of the testing would just be to expensive. I disagree whole heartedly on that because although it may be expensive, we could save so many lives by requiring drug tests to play sports. Many students have love for the game who would have no problem giving up drugs for the chance to play sports with drug tests and a little guidance.

Professional sports are a competition between the greatest athletes in the world. And when I go to a game, that’s exactly what I expect to see. Sports are entertainment. There is no room for purity and respecting the limits that athletes had in the past. Modern athletes should utilize all the resources that they have available to them. This includes steroids, which enhance an athlete’s performance. After all, performance is what really matters.

     The last reason why drugs should be banned in sports is because of the many teenagers that are abusing them. According to the National Institutes of Health, a half- million kids under the age of 18 are abusing steroids. It seems that we’re raising a generation of individuals destined to be highly aggressive or severely depressed. Most teenagers do not know the effects that steroids can cause. They lower good cholesterol and raises bad cholesterol. That gives users a better risk

According to Dr. Charles E. Yesalis, a professor health and human development at Penn St. University, "drug use among athletes has gone dramatically up in recent years. Athletes also are becoming more venturesome about mixing different types of drugs. One reason is that new drugs keep coming on the market, and some turn out to be of help in giving athletes a competitive edge. Sports officials feel they have no choice but to try to combat drug use in sports with every legitimate weapon at their command. They are motivated in part by concern for athletes' well being. Most performance-enhancing agents have side effects that can pose an immediate or long-range threat to health. But the officials are driven by self-interest too. If the public perceive major sports to be hopelessly drug-ridden, attendance and television viewership is likely to plummet. And thatcould lead to financial ruin for athletes and promoters alike. The monetary stakes are higher today than ever before. Many of the top athletes damned very high salaries, and a select few demand huge additional sums for product endorsement. Pro team owners, meanwhile, are constantly scrambling for more income from broadcasting and other sources to meet their massive payrolls and still turn a profit. A series of drug scandals might well cause media outlets and corporate sponsors

More and more, of our society views winning more important than itself. Success in competition brings status, popularity, and fame, not to mention college scholarships. Today’s athletes are looking for an advantage over the competition that will make them winners. Unfortunately, the drugs of today are caught up in the high stakes competition frenzy. Of this reality, teenage use of performance improved drugs is growing ever more popular. In colleges and in the professional league a lot of people are doing drugs and its ruining their health and life. Also, if some teenagers take performance drugs they are making them better than everyone else giving themselves an advantage over everyone else which is cheating, so why should they get money