Student Drug Testing Survey

– Narrative Essay, Research Paper

Student Drug Testing Survey – Narrative

Schools from 11 states known to have a student drug testing program were surveyed. Of the 26 schools reporting a current student drug testing program, 15 (58%) report having a mandatory student athletes program while 2 (8%) have a mandatory all co-curricular student program. Seven (27%) have a voluntary drug testing program and 2 (8%) have a reasonable suspicion program only.

For the mandatory athletes testing programs, most policies have been in place for 2-3 years. The majority of programs (71%) only do random testing during the season while the others (29%) test all the athletes at the beginning of the athletic season. All schools report only urine as the tested substance. It appears there is no clear pattern on the frequency tests are done with 53% testing weekly, 13% testing bi-monthly, 7% testing monthly and the remaining 27% testing frequency of several times each season. The average number of students tested per session was 18 or about 12% of the student athletes in season. Most schools averaged over 300 tests per year, with the Winter Semester being the lightest season.

The schools reporting a voluntary drug testing program have had their programs in place an average of four years. Testing frequency is different in that 43% test weekly, 29% bi-montly and the remaining 29% test a set number of times during the school year.

What Drugs are tested for.

As expected, the majority of schools with mandatory programs tested routinely for marijuana and cocaine (93%) with only 57% testing for alcohol and only 4% testing for LSD or nicotine. This is interesting since most of these schools ban use of tobacco by their students and nicotine is a gateway drug. The use of tobacco products will cause the most long term ill health effects on these students. Those schools having voluntary programs report more frequent testing for alcohol (57%), LSD (29%) and nicotine (29%). The most obvious reason for this difference is the fewer number of annual tests being done resulting in more funding being available to test for more types of drugs.

Are Certified Labs being used.

Of all the schools surveyed, 41% know for sure they use a SAMHSA certified laboratory and an alarming 59% said they didn’t know. If a lab is not certified by SAMHSA, then any result they report could be subject to legal challenge. If a legal challenge should arise from results of a student drug test processed by a non-certified laboratory, this could be considered a significant deviation from normal practice and leave the school district liable.

Positive Results

There has never been clear data on the actual positive result level for a student drug testing program. I have seen it discussed by experts in the field to be about 3%. The primary goal of this study was to look at this very fact in an attempt to qualify the expected rate of positive drug tests for a new program and one that has been in effect for several years. This study finds that for the mandatory drug testing programs and the voluntary programs, the rate of positive results for the initial year of the program ranges from 1% to 10% with an average of 2%. After the initial year of the program, the positive rate appears to drop down to *1%.

Is it helping.

One cannot totally evaluate the effectiveness of a student drug testing program by the drop in levelof positive drug tests. In an effort to understand better how schools view the total affect of their testing program on the drug use behavior of their students, schools were asked to rate the drug use patterns of their students prior to initiation of a testing program and currently. For the school with mandatory athlete program, prior to testing, 60% percent describe their drug problems as “bad as most” and 13% “worse than most.” For those school with voluntary drug testing programs, 86% say their drug problems are “bad as most.” However, after a mandatory program’s first year, 27% report less use, 27% report significantly less use and 7% report markedly less use. The voluntary program schools also report “significant less use” (57%), and significantly less use (14%). Thus the far majority of schools who institute either a mandatory or voluntary drug testing program, 93% and 85% respectively report less use of illicit drugs by the groups tested. A mandatory program has always been thought to be more deterrent and has an impact on a greater number of students. Most schools also indicated an expectation of even greater deterrence to drug use in the future as the program becomes more ingrained in the culture of the student body. Many felt that as middle school students, who naturally look up to high school athletes as role models, would avoid drug use because of this positive peer pressure and the knowledge they too will be held accountable to drug-free participation when they reach high school. Many middle school students already are included in the school’s drug testing program. If a school can somehow influence the behavior of the “leaders” of the students, many of which are athletes, they can have a great impact on the rest of the student body.

Benefits and Problems

The biggest benefit of the student drug testing programs reported from the various schools, besides the obvious less illicit drug use, is the fact that now st