Why student athletes should be drug tested - Essay Example

Drug Testing Athletes Drug Testing Athletes Several universities, schools and collages throughout US and in other nations have started testing student athletes for drugs and alcohol. These tests are on a rise since 1995 when the US Supreme Court accepted that students who are involved in athletic activities should be tested for drugs. According to ESPN, the University of Oregon has decided to implement drug tests for its athletes on random basis right after a research conducted by ESPN proved that football teams that play at University level have forty to sixty percent of the total players who are involved in the act of abusing marijuana (ESPN, 2012).

Similar kind of random and announced drug activities have been implemented by several universities. These tests have gained immense amount of criticism as these tests have failed to achieve the objective for which these tests were being conducted and have ended up being counter productive. These tests have been criticized because these tests do not reduce drug abuse, these tests can result in loss of trust and these tests are against individual’s constitutional rights. The drug tests conducted on random basis among athletes are conducted because educational institutes believe that these tests will decrease the probability of athletes using drugs and since athletic students are popular, other students will follow their lead.

The universities even believe that students will fear the tests and due to the fear that these results will be informed to parents, athletic students will not abuse drugs. Two studies conducted during 2003 reported that drug tests never reduce consumption of drugs and these tests may lead to increase in consumption. One of these studies were conducted in Oregon Health and Science University, the study proved that although random tests led to the reduction of drug abuse but did not lead to cessation of use of alcohol and cigarettes (Louria, 2003).

Another problem that the study showed was that athletes were less involved in drug abuse than those students who did not take part in athletic activities. Similarly a random drug test was conducted in University of Michigan, the population that was studied in this research included students from 8th, 10th and 12th grade (Louria, 2003). The outcome of the study was similar as previous, the results of the study stated that such tests do not reduce drug abuse among both athletic and non athletic students.

The second reason due to which drug tests conducted on student athletes have been recognized as wrong is that these tests leads to invasion of privacy and these tests are against the constitutional rights of an individual. According to laws followed in US an individual can not be considered as criminal or a wrong doer until he has been proven by the state as a wrong doer. In the case of drug testing, universities are first accusing that athletic students are wrong doers and drug abusers and then tests are conducted on a student.

The constitution has even barred the act of conducting unreasonable searches and according to this constitutional law, searches against a specific group are not allowed. In the case of drug tests on athletic students, searches are being conducted only on athletic students and not on all the students, this makes these tests unconstitutional. But the court has allowed universities and educational institutes to conduct random drug tests on their students. Children and teenagers have a tendency to report their problems and wrong doings to authorities such as parents and school teachers if they believe that they can trust these authorities.

If they fear these authorities they resort to remaining silent and not sharing their personal issues with authorities. Similar is the case of drug testing on athletic students, if universities start drug testing, children will fear that their parents and authorities within educational institutes do not trust them and due to these fears they will not share there problems with anybody. Trust is a major element that needs to be maintained with students, when this element is destroyed, it can not be regained.

Abusing drugs, smoking and drinking alcohol has become an in thing for students. Students are not involved in these activities simply because they like such activities; they perform such acts due to peer pressure. Such activities are wrong but can not be countered through tests; there are several other methods to make a child stop abusing drugs. Drug tests on athletic students have failed to conform to the purpose for which these tests were designed. These tests have failed to stop students from abusing drugs, these tests have resulted in loss of trust and these tests are against student’s constitutional rights.

References Louria, D. B. (2003, October 1). Drug tests of student athletes and other students:It appears to do no good, but that probably will not stop the testing. New Jersey Medical School. Retrieved December 1, 2012, from http://njms2.umdnj.edu/hwmedweb/archives/mandatory_archive.htm Oregon Ducks trying out random drug testing for athletes - ESPN. (2012, September 7). ESPN: The Worldwide Leader In Sports. Retrieved December 1, 2012, from http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8346278/oregon-ducks-trying-random-drug-testing-athletes