Student athletes spend their time juggling responsibilities and must find time to be at the gym or on the field practicing their athletic abilities while trying to balance family and social life.
Because student-athletes work with such a compact schedule and an already high-stress level environment, school faculty should not increase their stress by forcing student-athletes to take drug tests.
Schools may spend thousands of dollars on drug testing kits and limit resources for the rest of the student body. One of the most common types of drug tests, that is also frequently used by employers as part of their pre-employment screening programs, is the 10-panel drug test. You can learn more about this drug test, by visiting the Health Street website which is A great 10 Panel Drug Test resource.
A 2013 article by thelariatonline.com, reports that “During the past two school years, Illinois High School Association performed close to 1,800 drug tests near the start of the 2010- 2011 school year. Only four students tested positive for drugs, two of which were because of medication. The other two, were the first punishable offenses in the program’s history. Each of these tests cost approximately $35.”
Of those $63,000, not one dollar was spent on new textbooks, school food, or for the creation of more extra curricular activities, which could prevent students from engaging in the use of drugs.
Students athletes who are subject to drug tests would also have to be conscious of every food choice they make, because certain foods can falsely screen as a drug, such as poppyseeds.
The 2013 article said that poppy seeds have been reported to show up as opiates in urine test results. Realistically, any student that has had a poppy seed bagel for breakfast could face expulsion by the end of the day.
Some student-athletes may also need to take prescription drugs such as Adderall for ADHD.
These medications appear in test results as amphetamines, which are also present in the hard drug methamphetamine, according to an article published by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Similarly, some students also use natural remedies such as CBD to manage mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety as well as illnesses including chronic pain. As a result, a large number of students have even asked “will CBD make you fail a drug test?”. However, as long as the CBD oil students are using is free of THC, this should not interfere with a drug test.
Student athletes who do test positive for drugs, can be subject to emotional trauma because of school expulsion or suspension until an investigation is conducted to prove the student innocent.
This leads into a breach of the Fourth Amendment, which is the right of protection from unreasonable search and seizure.
Unless there is confirmed evidence of illegal activity, students should not be drug tested and persecuted without further evidence of crime.
There’s also the fact that student-athletes may be abusing drugs that are not detected by drug tests, such as alcohol.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, students are most likely to abuse alcohol than most other drugs. However, there are some students who will dabble in marijuana as an expression of ‘freedom’, this shouldn’t be athletes as they take their sport seriously, but they may unwittingly take some if they were at a party as there are ways of consuming weed now that is more hidden, it can be in things called ‘edibles’, where they look like sweets or are masked in food, students who have possibly taken these and are not sure but worried about it should look up ‘how long do edibles stay in your system for drug test‘ so they can better understand the timeline.
Student athletes lead high stress, responsibility-driven lives that leave no room for more unnecessary stress from unreasonable drug testing.