Should Student Athletes Get Paid?

“Sooner or later, we need to respond to the fact that we have an epidemic of substance abuse that is taking a real toll on the lives of young people in America” says psychiatrists Dr. Keith Ablow. Fifty percent of twelfth graders in the United States admitted to using drugs in the past year. Legally, only students that participate in extracurricular activities can be required to take a drug test. Should student athletes should be required to submit drug tests before participating in school sports because it could cause them to quit using the drugs; therefore, making them healthier and also to to help their decision making abilities which is a very important aspect in sports.
The University of Illinois did a school wide drug test on their student athletes during the 2014-2015 school year. Six different sports tested positive 65 times for illegal drugs. The Football team had the largest amount of positive tests, but also had the most amount of student athletes participating in that sport. Baseball, Softball, and basketball followed. There were two sports that did not fail the drug tests: “Surprisingly, …show more content…
“Using drugs often compromises judgement and physical abilities and makes a person unable to perform in a variety of contexts such as academics, athletics, music/dramatic arts, decision making in everyday situations, driving any kind of vehicle, and operating equipment or tools.” (The Coaches Playbook). The most used trait in athletics is quick decision making. Since decision making is affected by the use of drugs it can not only hurt the student athlete's team, but it can hurt themselves’. Also, using drugs can affect their academics in school. If their grades get too low, then there is a possibility that they won’t be allowed to play sports for a certain period of time or until they get their grades up. This is how the use of drugs can affect student athletes decision making and even more so,