Random Drug Testing In Schools Essay

There have been arguments that suggest that even if schools such as Western choose to treat the non-prescribed usage of study drugs as academic dishonesty, it will be too difficult to regulate its usage among students. The presence of stimulants and other drugs are screened through urine testing (Boye et al, 2017). It is an exaggeration to resolve to drug testing students under the suspicion that he or she has taken a study drug. Nevertheless, the idea of random drug testing has been discussed among educators. For example, Professor Sahakian from the University of Cambridge believes that the school should begin to implement random drug testing (Ensor, 2013). This approach, however, is flawed. A limitation is that it does not tackle the major problem. If students feel compelled to take cognitive enhancers in order to deal with the daily stressors of school

The most effective way to regulate its usage is to control the way in which study drugs are distributed. As previously stated, students are able to obtain prescriptions through faking ADHD/ADD symptoms. There is a stronger need for efforts to improve the diagnostic process. A limitation in the ADHD/ADD diagnostic process is the fact that symptoms are largely self-reported, which means that people can successfully feign symptoms to align with the diagnostic criteria in order to be diagnosed (Harrison & Parker, 2007). The objective should be to create a comprehensive diagnostic criterion to differentiate between the students feigning symptoms and students who are demonstrating authentic symptoms. A university does not need to resort to a ‘witch hunt’ and resort to drug testing every student during exams but instead should regulate their on-campus resources such as Mental Health Services and health clinics to ensure that students that are diagnosed and being prescribed medication truly need