Many of us know that drug testing is conducted at schools, workplaces and other government and private organizations to find illegal drug users. However, these days many educational institutions are conducting drug tests before giving educational scholarships to students. Some people find it advantageous and some others find it disadvantageous. Here are some of its pros and cons.
Pros
- Conducting drug test when giving educational scholarships can help the parents to know about their kids and help them. It is good for parents to know if their kids are in a primitive stage of drug use or in an addictive phase.
- It minimizes the possibilities of giving scholarships to drug abused students instead of the deserved ones. There are many cases in the past where the schools provided scholarships for those who are serious drug users. This is very much distressful. So students who are non-drug users and deserve the scholarships can benefit a lot when drug tests are conducted.
- Kids also reduce the chances of ruining their education. If the tests are not conducted, they are habituated to drug use and suffer from many problems. They lose their interest in education and their grades get reduced.
- The percentage of drug users in schools, colleges, and universities gets decreased.
- Substance abuse by students in educational institutions may influence other students to take drugs. A drug testing program conducted at the right time also reduces this.
Cons
Though it is found that drug testing when giving scholarships is beneficial, there are even some disadvantages.
- All those who are tested positive may not be frequent drug users. So they may lose the chances of getting scholarships.
- If once a student is marked as a drug user, there are less chances for him to get admissions in any educational institution. This spoils the student’s career.
- There are even some people who consider that conducting drug tests at the institutes interferes with their policies of privacy.
So it is better to consider these pros and cons before conducting drug tests while offering scholarships at educational institutions.
