Why Drug Test Students?

There are many good reasons to implement a student drug testing program. Here are a few:

• Helping "high-risk" groups. Although we are starting to see a decline in illegal drug use, there is still much more to do. The highest-risk groups, populations most at risk for illegal drug use, are adolescents and young adults. According to a national survey in 2003, students were asked if they had used illicit drugs within 30 days prior to the time of the survey. The rank order for using any illicit drug was 12th graders (24%), college students (21%), 10th graders (9%), 19- to 28-year-olds (both at 20%), and 8th graders (10%).

• Deterring drug use. The risk of being caught by a drug test becomes more real when students know that they may be tested on any day that they are in school. Students know that if they test positive for illegal drugs, they could get cut from a team or excluded from a club. It gives most students another good reason to say "no" to drug use.

• Identifying drug problems early. When illegal drug use is identified through drug testing, students and their families receive support, counseling and follow-up care. Early intervention and treatment are the most powerful weapons against addiction and the damage drug use poses to students, their families, the educational system and the community.

• Improving the quality of school education. Distractions associated with drug use -- behavioral problems, increased violence, absences, etc. -- cripple the learning process and adversely affect the entire student body. Drug use does not only adversely affect the people who use drugs, it affects everyone around them.

• Preventing adolescent addiction. Random student drug testing is especially important in the teenage years because children and teens become addicted more rapidly than adults and for them recovery is more difficult. It is also important because almost all drug use begins during the teenage years. CASA's 1997 Annual National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse reports that if children reach the age of 21 without abusing drugs, alcohol or tobacco, they tend not to start drug use later on in life.

• School administrators are enabled. School administrators must have reasonable means to deter conduct which can seriously disrupt the school environment.

• Decreasing athletes' risk of injury. Vernonia School District vs. Acton, 1995 Supreme Court case ruled in favor of Vernonia allowing the public school to test athletes in a mandatory, random testing program. It was determined that drug use increased the risk of sports-related injuries. Among other problems, stimulant use can be associated with a feeling of invincibility that often dominates stimulant highs and leads to more risky behaviors.

• Reinforcing the message. Random student drug testing reinforces the no-drug-use message of all of the other drug prevention programs used in schools. It also reinforces the values of most employers now requiring pre-employment drug tests.

Source: Johnston LD, O'Malley PM, Bachman JG. Monitoring the Future: National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2002. Vol I: Secondary School Students. Bethesda, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse; 2003.

Note: High school seniors have been surveyed in the spring of each year since 1975. Each year's data collection takes place in approximately 120 to 146 public and private high schools selected to provide an accurate representative cross section of high school seniors throughout the coterminous United States. Up to 350 seniors in each school are included in the sample.

Figure 1 illustrates that as the perceived risk of marijuana increases, the use of marijuana decreases. The proportion of 12th graders who reported using marijuana peaked in 1978 and again in 1997, precisely the years in which the perceived risk of regular use was at its lowest. As more teens think that the risk of marijuana is not severe, the use of marijuana rises. One important "risk" is the risk of a positive drug test in an SDT program for students who use drugs. This research clearly shows why raising that particular risk effectively lowers drug use.