Albert Camus once said, “Life is the sum of all your choices.” As a athlete you’re making choices all the time. When you’re playing the choices you make can win or lose games, but can the choices you make when you’re not competing cause you to win or lose as well?
I had the opportunity to sit down with two student-athletes here at UNLV . One of them made a choice and faced the consequences of it, and the other spoke with me about the choice his teammate made, and the choices that many athletes make. Both student-athletes asked for their names, team, and sport to be withheld.
Q: How old are you?
A: 22
Q: What year are you in school?
A: Senior, but I’ll be graduating in May 2009.
Q: What’s your major?
A: Beverage Management
Q: How long have you been playing?
A: About 18 years.
Q: Prior to this incident, had you smoked marijuana before?
A: Yes.
Q: Do you still smoke now?
A: No, I haven’t smoked since my test.
Q: Oh yes, the test. Let’s talk about that. Was the whole team drug tested?
A: No.
Q: Were you bitter towards your other teammates that didn’t get drug tested?
A: It was a random test, I wasn’t bitter.
Q: How did you find out you were going to be drug tested?
A: The night of my game, I received a written letter that said I would be drug tested the next morning, and if I didn’t show up for the drug test it would considered a failed drug test.
Q: What were your thoughts once you received the letter?
A: I was worried and thought maybe it was a joke and I just figured I would be in trouble. I knew the weed wasn’t out of my system.
Q: Was this a NCAA drug test or a UNLV drug test?
A: UNLV.
Q: So once you found out you were going to be tested, you decided to get some detox to try and cover up the marijuana that was in your system. Is this correct?
A: Yes.
Q: Was it your idea to get the detox?
A: Yes.
Q: Where did you get it from?
A: A smoke shop called Diversity.
Q: Now the person that sold you the detox told you it wouldn’t show up in the test. Did it?
A: Yes, the detox showed up in the test.
Q: The detox was supposed to cover up the marijuana in your system, correct?
A: Yes.
Q: When had you smoked prior to the drug test?
A: A week before I got tested.
Q: Was it a blood sample or a urine sample that you had to give?
A: A urine sample.
Q: Do you still smoke now?
A: No.
Q: Now that you’ve failed a UNLV drug test, how often do you get drug tested?
A: I haven’t been tested since I failed. I got tested twice immediately after I failed but not since then.
Q: Do you have any regrets?
A: Yeah, bad choice, bad timing.
Q: Will you get drug tested over summer?
A: I dunno. There’s random testing over summer, so there’s a chance.
Q: What punishment did you receive for failing the drug test?
A: I was suspended for two weeks, no practice, or games. I had 20 hours of community service, drug counseling service, and I had to write a reflection letter.
Q: Do you feel like you should have received a harsher punishment?
A: Definitely not.
Q: Why?
A: I think my punishment was harsh enough for a first time offense.
Q: Would you say you’re easily influenced?
A: No, I wouldn’t
Q: Where you pressured to smoke?
A: There was pressure but it’s not what made me make the decision.
Q: What did your parents have to say about you failing a drug test?
A: They don’t know.
Q: Why?
A: Because they don’t need to know, I’m an adult.
Q: Where you the only person on your team that failed?
A: Um, no. Two people failed, not including myself.
Q: Do you think it’s right for student-athletes to be tested?
A: Yes because athletes shouldn’t use drugs, whether they enhance or not.
Q: So then why did you?
A: I was pretty confident I wasn’t gonna get tested, I dunno.
Q: You’re a Division I athlete, why would you use drugs?
A: Same way any other student would choose to.
Q: So you don’t feel you should be held to a higher standard?
A: Uh, no I don’t.
Q: Do you think you have a substance abuse problem?
A: No.
Q: Do you feel the affects of smoking when you play?
A: No! I don’t feel the affects of smoking when I play.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to say?
A: I don’t have anything else to say.
After speaking with this particular student-athlete, I sat down with his teammate to get his insight on what had happened.
Q: How did you feel when you found out some of your teammates had failed drug tests?
A: My first thoughts were, oh shit, who was it and how many?
Q: Being a transfer and a new kid on the team, did this influence how you felt about the team?
A: No.
Q: How do you feel about student-athletes being drug tested?
A: Just in general I would say it’s not a bad thing but it’s not a good thing at the same time.
Q: What makes it bad?
A: We live in this limelight of where everybody wants to know what we’re doing, but regular students don’t get that.
Q: What makes it good?
A: It makes it good because teammates have to make some sort of sacrifice for the team because they’re afraid of getting caught. I know some players would go out and do drugs on a regular basis of they knew they wouldn’t get caught.
As Albert Camus once said, “Life is the sum of all your choices,” and just because you’re a student-athlete doesn’t mean you should be treated differently, but maybe the choices you make should be different. Drug-testing is a touchy subject in general, but it’s not really about the test, it’s about the choices.
