Man, all these student-athletes getting caught drinking and smoking weed. If they could only be more like their peers… oh, wait.
On any given day in America, roughly 1.4 million college students between the ages of 18 and 22 — or more than 1 out of every 8 American undergrads — will drink alcohol, according to new data from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Those who partake will consume an average of about four drinks each — just below the five-drink threshold that defines binge drinking. Of course, many of them will drink more than that. Many will drink less.
Other young people will opt to alter their consciousness with different substances. Roughly 900,000 college students, or 1 in 12, will get stoned…
The point here isn’t to condone the behavior – rule breaking is rule breaking, after all – but merely to question whether a take no prisoners zero tolerance approach really is the wisest, considering the general population these kids find themselves immersed in.
Maybe we could start with not holding surprise drug tests of players on their first day back from spring break. Hell, the Jim Harbaugh approach to spring break at IMG Academy makes more sense than that.
Get The Picture 
The answer to your question is, “No.” If Daddy Board of Regents claims to see some benefit to students from random drug testing let it pay for random drug testing of all University System students.
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What about testing Faculty also? Pot is just as much against the law for them as it is for students. How about all state employees?
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There’s the rub, Gurkha. Good professors are as hard to find and hire as finding and recruiting good QBs. Dismissing employees for using pot would be asinine (for schools) since they would cut off their nose to spite their face in so doing. Never heard of a prof showing up for work on pot, but have alcohol. It would be interesting to see the current and past usage of ganga only by profs. Most profs that I knew in school and afterwards who worked in my discipline would give you surprises that would be the source of Category 1 sanctions by the NCAA if student-athletes were involved; whereas, many that I knew never touched alcohol or pot.
It would be interesting to see a survey of faculty both for consumption of alcohol and illegal substances.
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There are good professors?
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I think the members of the Board of Regents need to set a good example about following laws, so I propose they submit to random IRS audits.
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Whoa, now … let’s not go overboard! Take a look at this training video from faculty orientation on how to enlighten young minds:
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Yall have a safe Memorial Day and think long and hard on those who knowingly put themselves in harm’s way to never return and enjoy this day. And think harder on those who didn’t want to go, but were drafted, went anyway and were deprived of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
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Plus 1000 Cojones
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Auto rec’d for JohnPrine … oops, wrong site.
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I’ve said this several times before. Just stop the in-house testing. The NCAA seems to be leaning toward stopping its non-performance enhancing drug testing program anyway. UGA can keep the same suspension policy, just apply it for drug related arrests. Chauncey Rivers took himself out without having failed any athletic department administered drug tests. That’s a pretty rare feat. If they just quietly stopped random testing, the AD could still look like hard asses by keeping their suspension policy.
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In the local high schools, half the transcendent athletes are smoking – and going nowhere fast. Physical and emotional stamina have disappeared for a couple of kids who were can’t miss D1 prospects. And when I bring this up, my friends who smoke rip me and say I’m doing the correlation/causation thing, blaming a perfectly innocent plant for the looming failure of a user.
Are most people capable of putting boundaries on their pot use in the same way most peope do with alcohol? I tried pot twice in college – both times, I felt like the pot just fuzzed up my brain for the better part of a week. Didn’t like it at all. Maybe just the placebo effect of suggestion after all those warning testimonials on TV, in church, and in school.
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Allow me to be hypocritical about weed: I agree that young adults shouldn’t smoke it, especially if they are student-athletes or serious achievers in school or both. Exposure to ganga is there and by the looks of the above data, your children are exposed to a social setting in college that has around 88% nondrinkers and over 90% nonsmokers. Holy crap! That’s a pretty good crowd, don’t you agree?
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Yeah, sounds a tad low, doesn’t it?
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I have never thought that marijuana was especially dangerous and in general the folks who want to paint it as that have gone way overboard and lack credibility. Reefer Madness is a hoot, but I never heard of anyone who thought it was in any way realistic. The science generally doesn’t support the horror stories, either. The only reason I can think of that the ‘authorities’ remain opposed to it is that it does the same sort of things for people that Valium, Paxil, Vicodin, etc. (i.e., relax your mood, ease pain) do and widely available ganja would put a dent in the drug company profits. And yeah, marijuana has dangers, but so do those prescription drugs that are widely abused. I really wish this was not an issue for people who are not showing signs of failing in performance.
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well, I guess that settles it. “(You) have never thought” seems to sum up your position nicely, though. Smoke your brains out if that is what you like, but if you can’t follow the rules, don’t whine when there are consequences. If smoking pot is more important to young athletes than playing football in college, God bless them for their principled stand. Until then, learn the relationship between actions and consequences before you decide to do what you please.
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I don’t think he argued that there should not be consequences for the choice players make. I think he was arguing that it is stupid makenough players make that choice.
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There had grown up during the last 30 years a “marijuana law enforcement ” industry that has a lot more political power and campaign donation money than the legalization advocates.
Private probation industry needs probationers to make money. Private prisons need prisoners. The pee in a cup industry needs a steady stream of people under legal obligations to pee in a cup. Local governments are forced to rely on fine money to balance budgets.
Legalize weed and those responsible ensues go away. The legalization versus not debate really isn’t about the harm from seed. It is about taking care of the industry.
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“The pee in a cup industry needs a steady stream” may be the best line ever posted on this site. Hell, maybe the entire interwebs!
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Glad you caught that!
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My only hope is there is a way to memorialize it.
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There are plenty of students that are smoking marijuana legally with no repercussions. Hopefully no one will attach -athlete to their title and they’ll be ok.
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The word “smoker” needs to be defined as to frequency and experimentation.
ASEF has “tried” it “twice”. He is an experimenter, the same as most people in college, and not a “smoker”. You know from your own college experience that there are a greater number of “drinkers” in college and in society than about 12%. My point is that the data is from all colleges , including religiu
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(cont) religious institutions that would have 1% or less as drinkers.
Data from UGA might be of value in this discussion.
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Grew up Episcopalian. Favorite Episcopalian joke:
What do you always find in a group of 4 Episcopalians?
A fifth.
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Glad you caught that!
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Hell i thought this was an article about a Hank JR song
Get stoned and sing all night long
or
Get stoned at the juke box and stay out of fights
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