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Should high school athletes be drug tested? Should high school athletes be drug tested?
Yes, high school athletes should be drug tested Yes, high school athletes should be drug tested
No, high school athletes should not be drug tested No, high school athletes should not be drug tested
It will deter students from taking drugs It will deter students from taking drugs
It can result in students getting the help they need It can result in students getting the help they need
It helps make schools safer environments It helps make schools safer environments
Drug testing is expensive Drug testing is expensive
Students have a right to privacy Students have a right to privacy
It might encourage use of more dangerous substances It might encourage use of more dangerous substances
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Should high school athletes be drug tested?
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Yes, high school athletes should be drug tested

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It will deter students from taking drugs

School drug testing policies will deter students from taking drugs in the first place. Fear of the consequences of a positive drug test will stop students from taking drugs completely.
Clarence Thomas National Institutes of Health (NIH)
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The Argument

Yes, high school athletes should be drug tested. If high school athletes are subject to either random or consistent drug testing, it will deter them from taking drugs. Drug testing in schools has been proven to effectively achieve its main goal. It reduces the number of students who use and misuse illicit drugs because they know they would have to face consequences. Drug testing gives students a reason to resist peer pressure to take drugs.[1]A study published in 2012 found that students subject to mandatory random student drug testing reported less substance use than comparable students in high school without such testing.[1] The fear of getting caught with drugs in their system is enough of a deterrent to completely stop high school athletes from taking them in the first place.[2] Students often value the sport they are playing and their position on the team enough to be diverted away from drug use. Testing student-athletes who participate in school sports is a reasonably and wildly effective means of addressing a school's concerns in deterring and reducing drug use.

Counter arguments

Drug testing high school athletes is not an effective way to reduce and deter students from drug use. A 2013 study looked at 14 years of data on student drug use and found that school drug testing was associated with "moderately lower marijuana use," but increased use of other, more dangerous illicit drugs.[3] Another study reported by the National Institutes of Health concluded that drug testing was not associated with changes in substance use.[3]. Moreover, another study found that random drug and alcohol testing had "no deterrent effects on student athletes for past-month use during any of four follow-up periods". [1] Evidence shows that students and high school athletes are not largely deterred from drug testing programs implemented by their schools. These students who are determined to use drugs will either continue to do so, unafraid of the consequences, or will seek out far more dangerous substances with potentially more harmful and even lethal effects.

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Premises

Rejecting the premises

References

  1. https://www.drugabuse.gov/drug-topics/drug-testing/frequently-asked-questions-about-drug-testing-in-schools
  2. https://onlinemasters.ohio.edu/blog/high-school-athletics-and-drug-testing/
  3. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/04/27/schools-drug-tests-costly-ineffective-and-more-common-than-you-think/
This page was last edited on Wednesday, 4 Nov 2020 at 02:37 UTC

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