Social Policy | |
Drug Testing's Unintended Consequence |
To discourage drug use, public school districts have increasingly turned
to random drug testing of high school athletes -- and in some cases are
randomly testing all students in extracurricular activities and in a few
instances the entire student body. However, an economic behavioral analysis
suggests this tactic may have the unintended effect of increasing overall
drug use. That is because students may react to drug testing with compensating
behavior -- an effect in which individual responses to a government regulation
may diminish or even reverse the regulation's intended effect. For example, anti-terrorism measures at U.S. airports increase the inconvenience
(and cost) of air travel, causing marginal passengers to drive instead of
flying. Economists have calculated that this will result in more deaths
from auto accidents than the relatively rare deaths from terrorist acts
that are avoided. Marginal student athletes may react to drug testing like marginal passengers.
Moreover, the lower the ratio of drug use among athletes to nonathletes
prior to instituting drug testing, the more likely is an increase in drug
use. That is because the marginal athletes who drop out are more likely
to be immersed in a student culture in which drug use is popular. Source: Robert Taylor, "Compensating Behavior and the Drug Testing
of High School Athletes," Cato Journal, Winter 1997, Cato Institute,
1000 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20001, (202) 842-0200. For the full text go to http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj16n3-5.html |