Drug Testing in Schools

Drug Testing in Schools

Mandatory drug testing in schools is not a good idea. There are a few reasons why I believe that drug testing does more harm than good when it comes to keeping drugs out of schools. One reason is that it is humiliating for students; another is that it can discourage students from participating in extracurricular activities that require a drug test in order to join. Also, it raises the questions whether the cost of doing these tests would out way the benefits and are these tests really accurate?

Drug testing for students is not only humiliating for them, but it also discourages them from participating in extracurricular activities. There have been studies shown that these tests do not catch all the students who use drugs. Students may not sign up for extracurricular activities knowing they would be taking a risk of being caught with drugs in their system. Parents may not want there kids to be tested for drugs in fear that the test may be wrong and label their kid a drug user.

With the tight budget that schools already have, adding another expense such as drug testing may not be the best way to spend the school money. There are four kinds of drug tests; saliva, urine, hair and sweat patch. The least expensive, costing ten dollars is the saliva test and this test is the least accurate. The saliva test only detects the resent use of alcohol or drugs. The second one, Urine, starts at ten dollars and could cost as much as sixty dollars. This test is also not completely accurate when testing for drugs like LSD MDMA. The other two tests are slightly more accurate but they start at twenty dollars and can cost as much as seventy-five dollars. So, is this really worth it? Studies have shown schools have spent thirty to forty thousand dollars a year for drug tests.

This brings us to our last reason, are the tests always accurate? The answer is no. The most common used drug among teens today is alcohol; these tests have been proven to not accurately detect alcohol used recently by the student. Schools that have done drug testing, test on average fifteen-hundred kids and only 11 were found to test positive for drugs. This is why many schools that have had drug testing have abandoned the program to pursue more effective alternatives. So why would a parent or a school want to spend all their money for kids to get drug tested to find out that the tests might