Trondheim, Norway: Teens who engage in organized high-school athletics are more likely to use alcohol, but less likely to use cannabis, compared to adolescents who do not participate in sports, according to findings published in the January issue of the journal Addiction.
Researchers at the Lade Treatment Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse in Norway examined the drug and alcohol habits of over 3,000 Norwegian high school students over a period of twelve years.
They concluded, “Sports participation in adolescence, and participation in team sports in particular, may increase the growth in alcohol intoxication during late adolescent and early adult years, whereas participation in team sports and endurance sports may reduce later increase in tobacco and cannabis use.”
NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said that the results illustrate how random student drug testing policies can be inadvertently detrimental to youth.
“Most U.S. random student drug testing policies bar students who test positive from participating school athletic programs and other extracurricular activities. Yet ironically it is students’ participation in these programs – not the implementation of random drug testing – that has been shown to reduce kids use of pot and other drugs,” he said. “Why would we prohibit those students most at risk for illicit drug abuse from engaging in behaviors that have been shown to lower teens’ use of certain illicit drugs?”
Since 2005, the US Department of Education has appropriated over $10 million dollars to enact random student drug testing programs in public middle schools and high schools around the nation. The Bush administration repeatedly lauded the programs, claiming, “Student drug testing has proven to be effective in schools that have tried it.”
However, a 2003 cross-sectional study of student drug testing in 894 schools nationwide reported, “Drug testing, as practiced in recent years in American secondary schools, does not prevent or inhibit student drug use.”
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500 or Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org. Full text of the study, “Does sports participation during adolescence prevent later alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use?,” appears in Addiction.