Drug Tests More Dangerous Than Dugs?

 "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated"-Fourth Amendment

Drug tests administered by public schools are a direct violation of the fourth amendment. Many public schools have joined the band wagon on drug testing students to screen for the use of any illegal drug in the hopes of winning the “War on Drugs”. Well, I’m sorry to say that Ronald Regan couldn’t win this war, George Bush couldn’t win a war and public schools definitely will not win the war. There are so many problems that come up with drug testing in public schools that the cons outweigh the pros more than a sumo wrestler outweighs a super model.

First, who do we drug test? Everyone, and that’s the problem. In America everyone is innocent until proven guilty; yet, with drug testing everyone who is participating in an after school activity it seems more like we are guilty until proven innocent. People say that students should have nothing to hide if we are clean, and while that might be true if someone wants to kick you off an after school activity they better be ready to prove you are guilty. By simply refusing to take a drug test is not enough proof. The choices that the students make outside of school has nothing to do with how the student performs on the field or inside the class room. If the students show up to these events under the influence, then I suppose the faculty doesn't really need a drug test to figure out that the student is using.

Second, how do we drug test? The student may stand behind a closed stall while the monitor waits and listens for “unusual sounds”.  This is how the sample is collected, but how is the school getting the money for this? Each drug test costs about $100-$200 per test, and this is a public school. I would rather get free books to learn from then a free drug test.

Third, what happens before the test? It happens all the time to me, people will come up and ask “Kelsey, I’m getting drug tested in a week how do I pass?” The answer is always the same. Just don’t do drugs, but this is not the answer high scholars want to hear. So, these people desperate for a way to cheat a test do something more dangerous than just stopping. They detox. It’s a simple, yet dangerous, three step process. The first is to get all the “unwanted substance” out of your body, niacin is a popular drug to help with this. Students take this and believe it will help them, but it really only hurts them. Niacin strips the drug out of your body, which has to be flushed out through the kidneys and liver. This will trash your liver and if not used carefully can become deadly with organ failure. The next step is to wash away anything left, which involves lots and lots of water. It is possible to over does on water, but with most people they will simply just start throwing up a lot of water, which is never fun. The last step is Advil, which is even easier to over does on then Niacin and water. Advil gives a false negative (much like how poppy seeds give a false positive). Students will drink bottles of the stuff and it is much more painful on the liver than Niacin. The whole process of detoxing for a drug test is dangerous, painful, silly and stupid, but people do it anyways. The reason they do it is because they like the drug they are using and refuse to give it up. If these students won’t give up the drug for government testing then why do the schools believe they will give it up for football or the chess team? All drug testing does in schools is encourage students to try and find new and dangerous loop hole; like they say “if there is a will, there is a way”.

The last and most important part to consider in school wide drug testing is the long term affect of the test. For Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington New Jersey the school wide drug testing was put into place and from an outside view it seemed as if the students were positively responding to the test by stopping the usage of drugs. After three years of drug testing the school ceased the testing and within weeks a majority of students were using the drugs again. This leaves the question of where the students will be after high school. In college drugs are everywhere and the students of this high school clearly did not learn the dangerous aspects of drug usage. The students will be sent out into the real world with no concept of boundaries, which is what the schools should have been teaching students. The simple solution? Schools have to educate students about drugs and try to convince them, on their own, to stop using the drugs. High school students are more stubborn than a rock and playing big brother with them to try and make them stop using will not end well once the cameras turn off.