Drugs are scourge of the modern era. If wars have killed
millions of people, and diseases and epidemics wiped out not an insignificant
number of humans, the drugs are the third mass, which threatens earth’s population,
it destroys all different ages from different social classes more than wars and
diseases. Drugs are not just a regional problem, but it is worldwide problem.
Also, millions of people are suffering from drugs addiction; it is a phenomenon
with educational and social, cultural and psychological, health and economic
dimensions. Moreover, reports from the United States of America and the
official organization show that the spread of drugs covers the whole world.
The health aspect: continued drug abuse to the state of
psychological and physical and seriously affect the mind and behavior of the
addict, and the effects differ from a substance to another in varied degrees of
seriousness, and all this affects person relationship with the environment
surrounding him, and leads him to laziness and inactivity.
Also, drugs are
affect the social aspect it lead person to breakdown his family and the
collapse of his social relationships and he will unable to do the basic
individual requirements, which often leads (under the influence of drug demand)
to the crimes of theft and robbery, and murder.
In addition, drugs affect the economic side without any
benefit to any party. It is draining money and lead to the loss of family and
individual resources, which consequently leads to poverty and bankruptcy, and
drugs harm the interests of the states where the productivity will be reduced,
and the agricultural area devoted for food will decline. Furthermore, drugs
will increase the burdens of states in spending to combat it, for example,
provision of staff and departments in several bodies such as the drug
Enforcement Administration, FBI, Customs, prisons, criminal police and the
Interpol, Frontier Corps, Coast Guard, judiciary forensic, awareness programs,
treatment, and rehabilitation.
All of the above, drive me to support drug test from the
first year of high school and before access to the university or to engage in
the labor market in order to avoid falling of adolescents in the toxins of
drugs and to ensure gaining a high quality of education. Let us imagine; if the
student is under the influence of the drug what the education output will be?!
From here, when we apply the drug test on high school students and they will be
known that the test result will determine the type of education that they will
receive and how many opportunities will be lost and the opportunity to access
to the university or get a suitable job may will be missed. Thereupon, they
will think a million times before destroying themselves with drugs.
Also, drug test must be implemented in universities and
government jobs and non-governmental organizations on random base, and then any
one will ensure the continuity in his/ her job or school, and we will make sure
and guarantee the quality of productivity.
Thus, people knew that if they used the drug can be test detected easily, for the first time or even after several days or months of
use, mostly they will refrain about experience it.
We all know that drug test is expensive, but the cost of
treatment and its consequences will be much more. Spending some of the millions
at the beginning of the adoption of this project in each country with enactment
of strict laws to implement it will save thousands of millions in the future as
a result of the reduced capacity of drug dealers to attract the largest segment
of society which are the youth. Also, crime will be reduced in all its forms,
and a decreasing number of departments responsible for monitoring the issues of
drugs and many others.
Instead of finding solutions for results, we need to solve
the reasons.
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(1) http://www.scientologyhandbook.org/SH7_2.HTM
(2) http://www.medic8.com/drug-addiction/social-effects.html
(3) http://teens.drugabuse.gov/facts/facts_brain1.php
(4) http://www.justice.gov/ndic/pubs44/44731/44731p.pdf
(5) http://www.gale.cengage.com/pdf/samples/sp65756X.pdf
I agree with you that drug use is a worldwide phenomenon - one that destroys the lives of countless students and families. I wonder if we should train high school and college counselors to mandate drug testing based on behavior, rather than for everyone. Not only would this decrease costs, but it seems like it would create an environment of early intervention rather than policing/enforcement.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what the legal precedent is for mandatory drug testing. Does this violate search and seizure? My understanding is that for employment, you can require mandatory drug testing (based on 'employment at will,' Adair v. United States), but can you mandate this if students are required to attend high school? How would we respond if students were found to be using drugs? How does this violate students' privacy rights - for example if we did drug testing and found out they were taking other prescription medication, how would we respond? If we do find drug use, what would we do? Would we kick them out, give them a ticket, or intervene and help?
By teaching counselors, administrators, and teachers to watch for the behavioral clues for drug testing we could identify other addictions and early warning signs. A student who is depressed may not be on drugs, but could need counseling. On the other hand, a student who exhibits paranoia may be using heroin. Although drug testing would help 'catch' the latter, it wouldn't help us identify the former or intervene with students who have unhealthy and destructive addictions to food, sex, gambling, etc.
I found this website, which provides some insight into this issue: http://www.studentdrugtesting.org/. Thanks for raising this topic, it's very interesting to think about.
The introduction of drug testing to the collegiate level (http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2011/09/missouri_technical_college_begins_mandatory_drug_t.php) is a complex debate. At first thought, I was very much against such an idea. Cost of the testing and privacy of students seem to be issues worth considering. But much like a place of employment, the college institution has agreed to allow a student to be apart of their "organization" and the organization should be allowed to set their own rules. If employers have the right to drug test their employees, then I suppose that colleges could make it apart of their admissions requirements. The cost at that point, could be passed to the student that is applying to the college.
ReplyDeleteWith my own children approaching the college age, I honestly would not have a problem with them being drug tested. First, as a parent, there is some security in knowing that fellow students have been tested and could be tested randomly for drug use. With the knowledge of drug testing, those students who are motivated to complete their college coursework would be much more leery of partaking in such harmful trials. With the drug use continuing to an issue in the forefront, maybe it is time for more organizations to stand up for what is right. Those students that refrain from using drugs should be the type of students that the colleges want to retain. They want high graduation rates and retention. They want their students to be safe and they want their campus to be drug-free. I am not sure we can blame the institutions from wanting such a wholesome concept.
The idea of testing students at the high school level is a little more controversal since the majority of the kids are underage. I do, however, feel that when a counselor suspects behavior that is suspect, that maybe asking the parents for drug testing should be a considered alternative.
I appreciate you raising the issue of drug. My take on the issue is that there is a difference between drug use and drug abuse/addiction, although I am not qualified to truly distinguish between the two. From my perspective, what you describe in your post are the ill effects of drug abuse and addiction. These are terrible in every sense of the word. However, I am less convinced that more casual drug use is all so bad... but it is challenging to determine what qualifies as simple drug use. Issues surrounding drug use often involve the law, social norms, questionable research practices, and human nature. The legal part can be argued by lawyers and scholars. The social norms piece is really more of a localized issue. For example, in parts of Colorado, certain amounts of marijuana are legal to posses and use while neighboring cities ban it altogether. Also, in the U.S. we have a long history of legalized and acceptable drug use (alcohol and tobacco). It is difficult to find research that provides conclusive evidence about the dangers (and potential benefits of) drug use (especially recreational drug use) because there are so many variables that need to be controlled in medical experiments. And finally, there is human nature. It is easy to think that drug use will go away if there is testing and punishment. However, people are smart and will find ways to avoid detection (just think about the Tour de France and how ingenious the teams are in coming up with new ways to cheat the drug tests). And the really smart ones will find ways to make a lot of money from finding these ways. Pragmatically, I would prefer the government legalize certain drugs if only to reduce the profits that some very smart and ruthless people are making from their sales in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that drug use is a global problem and drug testing is a difficult debate. I have had encounters with this during my high school experience, and therefor am not for drug testing high school students. There is the issue of whether or not schools should be able to drug test if there is reasonable suspicion. How do you define reasonable suspicion? If a student is tired and has red eyes is that enough suspicion to test them for drug use? This was actually an issue in my high school. School officials would call students into an office if they had so called reason to believe that a student was under the influence. Several times students were wrongfully accused.
ReplyDeleteMy question is how is this helping the student? In my high school it did not seem as though the goal was to get the student help. Police were automatically involved and the punishment was usually suspension.
There is also the issue with cost. To me, drug testing is a waste of money. There are already enough cuts in the education system and drug testing students, especially all students, is not something the school systems can afford.
While reading up on the topic I came across an interesting court case involving Pottawatomie County v Earls. In this case, a county ruled in favor of drug testing all students in grades 7 - 12 who join extracirricular activities. In my opinion, it is important to engage students and encourage them to join actives outside of academics in order to cut down on drug use.