The debate rages on about whether or not school drug testing should be allowed with those in favor of it saying it is likely to curb the increasing use of drugs in school and those not in favor justifying it by declaring it is a violation of a student’s privacy. Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of school drugs testing
Pros:
Helps teens to get drug counseling and treatment if they are already using drugs. This is the main purpose of drug testing to help these kids to stop using and get back on track.
Helps reduce drug use and sale in schools. Random drug testing acts as a deterrent to most users and dealers of drugs.
Offers teens a reason to say no to offers of drug use. Knowing that they might get in trouble gives kids incentive and random drug testing gives them the ability to say no with a reason that can be called valid even by an insistent individual.
Gets kids help who may not otherwise have been suspected of drug use. Not all users are obvious and often the less obvious ones face serious addiction that could have been averted if caught early.
Cons:
Can be considered an invasion of the student’s privacy despite most schools’ privacy policies for drug testing.
Can cost a lot of money, which some schools do not have. Not all school have excess funding to afford random drug screening and therefore may not do testing or limit it so severely that it proves to be ineffective.
Many of those tested are likely to be negative for drug use so that testing may seem redundant. Many schools have a large number of students that can be tested but inevitably there will be far fewer positive tests than negative, which means that a lot of money has gone into futile and fruitless testing that could have gone into other projects.