With the problems of drugs appearing in the world of sports, many parents believe that if they place their children into a sport or any other extracurricular activity at an early age they will be spared from the world of drug use and maintain better grades in the long- run. Little do they know that teens who play sports do get better grades, but are also more likely to be the students who use alcohol and drugs. "It has been proven that alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana are the leading choice among youths in America today" (journal of alcohol and drugs education pg. 49). Due to the fact that the drugs mentioned above are probably the most common and easiest to get a hold of, they are also usually the ones that kids try first.

Alcohol, despite the increase in education and prevention efforts, remains the drug most widely used by high school

There's a believe that the use of illegal drugs and performance-enhancing drugs, and abuse of alcohol constitute a threat to the integrity of intercollegiate athletics. It also creates a danger to the health and the careers of the student-athlete. As soon as a student athlete joins and decides to participate in an inter-collegiate team, the war begins for the coaches and their staff to keep their players on the right track and not let them get caught up in the mist of that every athlete is more likely to engage in the drug abuse society. To prevent the problem a lot of universities around the world have adopted programs to educate their student-athletes to the personal risks and dangers of drug use and abuse. Another main focuses of these programs are to try to prevent the involvement before it becomes a problem. And in fact a problem does occur, try to provide treatment, and rehabilitation. Therefore they can detect the problem at an early stage. Although the odds are against the probability of making a drug free inter-collegiate program, it's a good attempt to try to minimize the use or abuse of drugs by any student-athlete.

last month. A study taken among high school athletes in 1988 showed that 83% of high school athletes have tried alcohol once in their lives. While 55% admitted to consuming alcohol varying from a few times a month to once a day. Rainey, Mckeown, Sargent, and Valios (1996) also found that highly active athletes, grades form 9th to 12th conducted in more drug-in taking than the low-active non-athletes. And were more likely to binge drink, concluding that athletic youths are at increased risk of alcohol use and binge drinking."

Some athletes are more prone to abuse steroids than are others. "Football players have the highest rate of abuse, while track and field athletes have the least" (Hansons, Venturelli 434). The abuse of these drugs increases as the level of competition increases. The effects of steroids might be good in the beginning, but the lasting effects can be crucial to ones own image. "Having higher androgenic properties and characteristics

Some common words found in the essay are:
Hansons Venturelli, Sargent Valios, Division III, , III II, Division II, division iii, drug testing, Division Division, division athletes, drug abuse, iii athletes, school athletes, athletes tested, division ii, abuse drugs, division iii athletes, II Division, random drug testing, division ii division, ii division iii, random drug, chance receive athletic,
Approximate Word count = 2011
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)