I’ve come to encourage that drug testing athletes should be seriously discussed due to the major presence of athletics on campus. Moreover, I feel drug tests can fail to be effective or justifiable.

Championing integrity, I feel deciding when tests are effective and warranted is a tough balance to strike.

When effectiveness fails, lax standards and enforcement can create false negatives among craftier players. Such was the case with former NFL star and current cannabis advocate Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones, who testified in interviews far after his sports career that he came up with the solution of not using his own samples to cheat drug tests. This was a publicity blunder for the NFL, who reactively tightened drug testing standards since the interview.

Without thorough justification, drug tests unable to account for long-term problems can create borderline false positives. Enter Aaron Ekblad: An ace card of the Golden Knights (at the time) whose alleged negligence towards the details of medicine he procured without clearance of medical experts cost him a suspension of 20 games with no pay. A level of punishment like this does expose human error as a risk with drug tests.

With these scenarios in mind, I urge that drug testing should be thoroughly adjusted to ensure sample legitimacy and that athletes can avoid unknowingly tripping off the alarm. College-level is when athletes build their reputations to hopefully make the big leagues, and maintaining the integrity of their budding careers can be valuable.

Sincerely,

Mikkel Silo