ANOTHER KIND OF TEST

Drugs, Athletes and Self-Defeating Behavior

It's a praiseworthy goal, but drug prevention is unlikely to be enough
of a reason to convince courts that Cumberland County schools should
carry out a program of random drug testing for athletes. These are
players, not parolees.

A committee is looking at the idea, but it appears filled with legal
and constitutional potholes. If there is clear evidence that a student
is using illegal drugs, then there are procedures that can lead to
drug tests and the appropriate disciplinary action. But there are few
points to be gained by assuming a player has a drug problem just for
having won a spot on a team.

Still, it's understood why coaches and teachers want to adopt a random
drug testing policy. Schools hope to do something - almost anything -
to keep the drug culture off their campuses.

A separate problem for athletes, and a serious one, is health. Cocaine
has been known to worsen heart irregularities during strenuous
exercise. Ecstasy is a drug that raises body temperature, which can be
life-threatening when activity during a game or practice pushes the
temperature even higher. Unhealthy students - and this includes
"recreational" drug users - shouldn't participate in school athletics.

Drug testing programs in a few school systems in North Carolina single
out athletes and have shown some success with prevention. But the
final decision whether these programs can continue after
constitutional challenges will be up to the courts.

Individuals make decisions that are best dealt with one-on-one.
Athletes aren't the only role models on a campus and they aren't the
only students tempted to use drugs.

An athlete buying cocaine or using steroids is a drug user at risk; an
honor student regularly using amphetamines to stay awake to study is
at risk; art, math or history students who arrive at school with
hangovers every Monday morning are at risk; a dancer who burns out on
Ecstasy is a drug user, too.

A better game plan would be for Cumberland County teachers and coaches
to tackle the larger issue, which is how to tailor drug-prevention
messages to reach different groups of students effectively. Then ask
for a test for drugs only when there is "probable cause," under
carefully defined circumstances.

Athletes are not, by definition, a criminal class. They shouldn't be
treated like it.

A school that wouldn't think of ordering random drug testing for the
class president without cause shouldn't test the quarterback "just
because."