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Drug Testing Student Athletes

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Many high school students all over the country know someone that uses or abuses at least one drug. Not only are drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamines bad for you, over the counter drugs such as painkillers can be just as bad. Some people even make the choice to use steroids to have an advantage in athletics or just to look more physically fit. Drugs have been a serious issue for student athletes for a long time and are still an issue today. Drug testing of members of high school athletics and activities should take place to make sure that students aren’t making decisions that could turn into addictions and so that they are putting themselves in a position to be successful.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in 2013, drug use was down to just under twenty-nine percent. This was about seven percent lower than the year before. Drug use had started to decrease until the use of marijuana skyrocketed. Today, fifty percent of high school seniors have admitted to using an illegal sometime in their life and about thirty-five percent admitted to using marijuana in the past year (The Science of Drug Abuse & Addiction). Also reported was the use of Adderall. Just fewer than …show more content…
Legally, the only students that are able to be randomly drug tested, are students that take part in any kind of extracurricular activity (The Science of Drug Abuse & Addiction). These schools are randomly drug-testing students because they feel that because students know that they could be drug tested at any time, they will resist the peer pressure and stay away from drugs. The tests also occur randomly because school officials want to use the tests as a way to find current drug users and try to steer them away from drug use. The tests aren’t supposed to be used as a way to find users and punish them; the tests should be used to help students and reduce drug use in

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