Drug Testing in School

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses the benefits of random screening for athletes in high schools, the proven efficacy of a drug-screening program and the fact that drug testing facilitates early detection of drug abuse. The paper then focuses on the arguments against drug testing, including the privacy concern of the student, the financial cost of the tests and the loss of trust between students and teachers or parents. The paper further relates that drug testing is less effective as a deterrent compared with other interventions, it may result in false positives and may force students to take drugs that are not easy to detect but are more dangerous. The paper therefore concludes that a more promising alternative is to increase students' awareness of the dangers of drug abuse by means of after school educational programs, counseling sessions and most importantly, promoting their participation in extra-curricular activities.

Outline:
Drug Testing Benefits
Cons of Drug Testing

From the Paper:

"Drug use among school students is a concerning issue for everybody including the students, parents, teachers and the society at large. As per the results of the 2006 Monitoring the Future (MTF) study almost 31.5% of high school seniors reported using marijuana at least once in the last one year while 18.3% reported to have used it within the last one month. [BJS] The abuse of prescription drugs was found to be on the rise with 15.4% of high school students reporting use within the last one year. The 2007 MTF study also revealed a decline in the perceived harmfulness of using MDMA (ecstasy) among high schoolers with an increase in its use from 2.4 to 3.5 % among 10th graders and 3 to 4.5% among 12th graders. [NIDA] Even alarming is the self reported fact that 25% of high schoolers gained access to drugs within the school property. However, the perceived dangers of drug abuse have not changed much from 1987 as is evident from the MTF graph. [BJS]"

Sample of Sources Used:

• OHSU, (Dec 2002), 'Pilot Study Reports High School Drug-Testing Program Dramatically Reduces Drug Use', Retrieved on February 23rd 2008, from, http://www.ohsu.edu/unparchive/2002/123002saturn.html
• Robert Taylor, (1997) 'Compensating Behavior and the Drug Testing of High School Athletes', CATO Journal, Retrieved on Feb 24th 2008, from http://web.psdomain.ucdavis.edu/people/faculty/rstaylor/Drug%20Testing.pdf
• 'Jennifer Kern, Fatema Gunja, Alexandra Cox, Marsha Rosenbaum, Ph.D., Judith Appel, J.D. & Anjuli Verma, (Jan 2006), 'Making Sense of Student Drug Testing: Why Educators Are Saying No', Retrieved Feb 24th 2008, from http://www.safety1st.org/images/stories/pdf/drugtesting.pdf
• Linn Goldberg, M.D, Dianne L Eliot, M.D. Davip P Mackinnon, Ph.D, Esther Moe, Ph.D, Kerry S Kuehl, M.S, Liva Nohre, Ph.D and Chondra M Lockwood, M.A, (Jan 2003), 'Drug Testing Athletes to Prevent Substance Abuse: Background and Pilot Study: Results of the SATURN (Student Athlete Testing Using Random Notification) study', Journal of Adolescent Health, Vol 32, Issue 1, Pages 16-25http://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(02)00444-5/abstract
• NIDA, 'NIDA InfoFacts: High School and Youth Trends' Retrieved Feb 25th 2008, from, http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofacts/HSYouthtrends.html

More papers on Drug Testing in School:

• Analytical Essay # 45931 : "Random Drug Testing in Schools"
• Essay # 70845 : "Drug Testing in Schools"
• Argumentative Essay # 23375 : "High School Drug Testing"

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