Issues Regarding Drug Testing

The argument that drug testing actually causes				consensus that this will expand to include all
more harm to society rather than helping it as				students in the future. A student who is tested
professed has been gaining ground in the last few				and found to have used drugs can be expelled for
years. Although drug testing was conceptualized				this reason alone. Instead of rehabilitating the drug
and implemented with the purpose of reducing the				abuser into regular social life, what a drug test
damage that is being done to society by drugs,				actually succeeds in doing is really denying the
the reality of the effects of drug testing seems				student a proper education pushing him farther
to be quite different.				into dependence on drugs.
Drug testing has advanced into schools, the				Another perspective to this whole issue is the
military and the workplace in a steady pace. The				opinion that it is not really the treatment after a
whole purpose is to promote a healthy				positive drug test that deters the person from
environment free of drugs and promote the zero				further drug abuse; it is rather the threat of
tolerance policy on drug abuse. But is the entire				incarceration and punishment. Once drug testing
drug testing campaign actually reducing the drug				has identified a drug abuser, the treatment given
abuse rate or is it really compounding the problem				to release him from addiction is opined to be
by driving the guilty party to the wall.				superfluous by a lobby that argues that it is the
When a person is screened and found to be guilty				possibility of punishment and loss of employment
of drug abuse, he is not always subjected to				that actually motivates the people to actually stop
rehabilitation and assisted recovery as we may				abusing drugs. This perspective emphasizes that
tend to believe. A person found to be abusing				after drug testing, punishment or the threat of it
drugs may have to undergo imprisonment, may				is necessary and in a way constructive in cleaning
lose his job and even lose the custody of his				up the society of drug abusers.
children. The point of concern is that a person				It is to be noted the usual urine drug testing does
detected during drug testing could possibly				not differentiate between a regular drug abuser
undergo punishment that would actually reduce his				and a one-time experimenter. When the drug
ties with society and decrease the chances of his				testing results come back as positive, it does not
return to a normal life.				contain information on when the person used the
It is not just the workplace that is under the				drug, nor does it contain info on how often he
shadow of drug testing. Earlier drug testing in				uses it.
schools fell in the grey area of the law and was				What results from this is that both of these
avoided for a while. But the US Supreme courts				types of drug users are clumped together and
have now approved drug testing in students of				people who just experimented with a recreational
public schools who participate in extracurricular				drug just once in their life time are labeled as drug
activities like sports, and there is general				abusers too.