Drug Use In Schools

Numerous court cases involve drug use by minors, specifically in dealing with teenagers. While drug use can often run rampant in schools, the drug culture in schools is often centered around the school’s athletics program. As such, many schools around the nation adopted a drug testing program in order to make sure teens trying out for teams are clean, and athletes stay clean. Drug use is popular in these athletics programs often for both recreational use, such as marijuana, and to give them an edge in their sport through performance enhancing drugs such as anabolic steroids.
Vernonia School District includes one high school and three grade schools in the logging community of Vernonia, Oregon. Like other small towns in the country, school sports play a prominent role in the town's life. The athletes who play for these schools are exalted, both in their schools and the community. Before the mid 1980’s, drugs were never a problem at Vernonia schools, until eventually teachers and faculty began noticing a rise in drug use.
Student athletes were not only a part of the drug-abusing circle, but it became known that they often were at the head of these circles.
The district administration began getting concerned, as increase in drug use would increase the likelihood of injuries among the athletes. Again, these athletes were held as the pillars of their community, as school sports is often the main attention-getter of these small towns. Testimonials began to confirm the negative effects drug use was having on the players, as there were noticeable effects on attention and performance. Both the football and wrestling coach began to notice more serious injuries occur to their athletes, who they believed were also using drugs. The school district adopted the Student Athlete Drug Policy, which enabled the school to induce random urinalysis tests to student
athletes.