Haley Casarez
Eng 111
4/9/14
Mrs. Yarow
A Proposal for Drug Testing of Community College Athletes To be the best in America today is often to some people the only thing that matters. This is especially true in the world of sports where big money and big egos are constantly waging battle to show who is the best and the biggest. Often times however there are those athletes who want to take things a step further, and that means steroids. It is for this reason that we believe that in the spirit of fair competition, community college athletes should be tested for performance enhancing drugs deemed illegal by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). In this day and age, athletes have become some of the most respected and sought out members of our society. Salaries of professional athletes are constantly skyrocketing to new levels, while the growing fan base continues to support it. Why have sports become so intriguing to our society? Perhaps it is the fact that athletes are bigger, stronger, and faster than ever before. They can perform at a much more competitive level and achieve previously unattainable goals. Some of this can be contributed to the evolution of man and sports, but many concede that performance enhancing drugs seem to raise the standard of excellence for many athletes. College athletes must deal with the pressure of using drugs to compete at a higher level. The NCAA is the governing body of all college athletics and is responsible for the drug program. Each year the NCAA publishes a revised addition of banned-drugs for college athletes. These drugs include stimulants(caffeine), anabolic agents (steroids, hormones), diuretics, peptide hormones and analogues, and street drugs. College athletes continue to use and abuse these drugs, despite the NCAA policy. Even at the community college sporting level, athletes are using performance enhancing drugs. There are no scholarship programs for athletics at most community colleges, so it seems that athletes would experience much less pressure to perform, than a division 1 athlete on a full ride. There is no mandatory drug testing policy for community college athletes, and each university and/or school district is empowered to take action. Drug testing should be enacted state wide to set standards for athletes that are representing their schools. A 2009 NCAA survey of institutions across all three divisions found that 92 to 96 percent of programs do random testing of all sports.() Yet some colleges recently have drawn attention for either starting random testing for the first time, previously testing only with “reasonable suspicion” that an athlete was using. Division III institutions, on the other hand, have shot down proposals to add year-round testing to what’s already done at championships, opting instead for an educational approach to reducing drug use. There are many forms of drug testing, but urinalyses testing is the main choice used for college athletes. The urinalyses that are performed can be quite expensive. The tests can detect a total of 180 different compounds from a mere half-ounce urine specimen. The cost however per procedure runs $120 for standard steroid screening and $180 for the full detection of all illegal drugs. There are different ways for colleges to fund for drug testing. College athletics could receive medical funding or take money out of their program when random testing is done. It is not like testing would be done every week, therefore it would not end up being a burden for the school or the coaches. To think about it too, money for drug tests would be less expensive than a hospital bill from an athlete over dosing or becoming ill from the drugs he or she has taken. There are many people with speculations on why this policy should not be enacted into colleges. People think that it would be an invasion of an athlete’s privacy and think that it would be unfair to place testing in community colleges now, not a wearing the athletes of this new policy. Huma argues it’s unfair for athletes to be singled out. “You don’t see the schools randomly testing regular students as a condition of their enrollment in school or their privileges in school,” he said.() It is true that students enrolled do not have to be drug tested, but we are talking about college athletes, prestigious students who worked hard to earn a spot on an athletic team. Even if you are signed with a division I school or a division III, all athletes should be put at the same standard. Using performance enhancing drugs is not just cheating yourself, but cheating your coaches and your team. As an athlete you are a role model of your school and should know that taking any type of drug could be costly. In order for all athletes to be looked as equal individuals and have the some standards being on a collegiate team, drug testing should be enacted into every school. This is a fair and manageable policy that colleges should enact in order to create good standards for the athletes and in order to have safe and healthy athletic teams.

“However, like most things, I think the perspective on random drug testing has changed over time, as evidenced by 95 percent of our peers having random testing. We want to make sure that above all we can preserve the health and safety of our athletes and put them in the best position to succeed.”

It is essential that the National Collegiate Athletic Association continue its excellent anti-doping campaign in order to rid college sports of the recent rash of drug use amongst its athletes.

Drug testing is generally on the rise. At least three-quarters of Division I and II and 30 percent of Division III colleges have an institutional drug testing program. Many are testing without "reasonable suspicion," more frequently and with more severe punishment than in years past. The NCAA also tests athletes on campuses and at championship events.
While Divisions I and II have adopted year-round drug testing, Division III presidents have opposed expanding testing beyond championship events.()
Works Cited
Grasgreen, Allie. "More Colleges Using Random Drug Testing for Athletes | Inside Higher Ed." More Colleges Using Random Drug Testing for Athletes | Inside Higher Ed. N.p., 27 Sept. 2012. Web. 08 Apr. 2014.
Grasgreen, Allie. "Athletes, Drugs and Entitlement." Athletes, Drugs and Entitlement. Inside Higher Ed, 16 Jan. 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.