Drug testing is expensive

High school athletes should not be drug tested because it is too expensive to conduct these tests. On average, individual school drug tests cost about $24 each. If schools are randomly testing all of their high school athletes on every individual team, the annual costs will range in the tens of thousands of dollars.^[1] This money can be spent on either far more effective initiatives related to reducing drug use of students. According to a report co-sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Drug Policy Alliance, schools could pay equivalent the costs of drug testing their students for far more effective measures. In lieu of a drug-testing program, a moderately large school could hire a full-time counselor to provide prevention programming to an entire student body and offer targeted intervention for students with substance use disorders. School-based counselors could provide advice and guidance to low-risk student-athletes and counseling to students with substance use-related problems and disorders.^[2] Moreover, the money that is spent on drug testing high school athletes could be spent on far more significant resources that students could benefit from. Low-wealth districts, especially those serving concentrations of students from low-income families, are often the hardest hit by state budget cuts.^[3] When these budget cuts occur, schools are left without vital resources such as books, counseling centers, and after school programs.^[3] High school athletes are people and students before they are athletes. Schools need to properly invest in their students, rather than investing in expensive and often ineffective drug testing initiatives.