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Two years ago, Texas decided to enact the largest high school steroid testing program ever as they were hoping to deter students from using anabolic steroids. Instead, Texas has created one of the biggest taxpayer wastes in history and lawmakers are already considering scrapping the plan.
I will always be a big supporter of people’s freedom to use anabolic steroids to gain size and muscle. There’s nothing wrong with a knowledgeable adult using steroids to enhance his physique and build muscle mass. In fact, I think it’s incredibly stupid that lawmakers haven’t legalized steroids in many nations since there are far more dangerous and widely available substances.
 In 2006, I first wrote about high school anabolic steroid testing and how States were coming up with funding for testing high school athletes while at the same time forcing more student athletic programs into the pay-to-play category - where kids have to spend their own money to participate in many of the sports outside of boys' football, basketball, and baseball. Here's a link to the article: |
But even though I definitely support people’s rights to juice as they please, it's a terrible idea for high school students to use steroids. Most high school students don’t have the knowledge or weight training necessary to get the maximum out of their stacks. And even if they did, teenagers already produce enough hormones to build significant muscle so they don’t need to be using steroids.
Even with that being said, I still think it’s absolutely ridiculous when states decide to enact high school steroid testing. The vast majority of high schoolers are never going to touch steroids during their athletic career and the ones who do juice are so few that it makes testing seem worthless. And when you factor in how many millions of dollars get put towards testing then you’re just talking about a huge waste of taxpayer money.
Of course, some states don’t worry about wasting taxpayers’ money on frivolous testing programs. Even worse, a handful of these states have become convinced that steroid usage has made its way from the ranks of professional sports down to high school athletes. And the states in question have been determined to stop this suspected high school steroid usage problem before it gets any bigger.
Texas is one of the states in this mix as momentum for high school steroid testing was powered by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Rep. Dan Flynn back in 2005. Two years later, Dewhurst and Flynn’s vision came to fruition when Texas passed a high school steroid testing bill in 2007 which called for tens of thousands of future anabolic steroid drug tests to be run.
Not long after the passage of the bill, students were being pulled out of Texas classrooms right and left so that they could pee in a cup. And it wasn’t just big, ripped football players who were part of the testing as guys and girls in sports ranging from cross country to tennis to the chess team were a target of the steroid tests.
The state of Texas rapidly moved towards the program’s first benchmark of 10,000 tested students. And what were the results of the $6 million program which sought to uncover a huge high school steroid use problem? 4 students out of the first 10,000 that were tested turned up positive results for steroid usage which has really made some people question whether the program is worth $6 million a year.
Dan Flynn is one person who still thinks it is and he even goes as far as to call the program which busted 4 out of 10,000 students an “incredible success”. Of course he doesn’t think the success has come from spending $6 million to catch an average of 1 out of 2,500 students using steroids. Instead he believes the success comes in the fact that the program could deter other students who are thinking of juicing.
Flynn said, “We don't have a bunch of pelts hanging on the wall. The success is that we haven't had a lot of positive tests.” Lt. Gov. Dewhurst agrees with Flynn and he said, “Testing is deterring our young people from putting their lives at risk or wrecking their bodies through the use of illegal steroids.” Both legislators also point to the overall number of 22 students who were counted as positive steroid tests since they either refused to pee in the cup, left the testing area before they were allowed, or had unexcused absences from school when they were selected to give urine samples. Anybody who “tested” positive was suspended for the first 30 days of their sport’s season.
Republican Sen. Dan Patrick is one person who thinks that the Texas high school steroid testing is a huge waste of time and money. He believes the $6 million put towards the tests could be better used in preventing drug and alcohol usage among high schoolers. Ever since the inception of the steroid testing program, Patrick has been battling to end it or at least scale it down.
And scaling down the program would certainly be a worthwhile consideration since 40,000 – 50,000 students are expected to be tested by this June. Dewhurst thinks that the program needs more time before any cuts can be made in it while Flynn just hopes that it hangs on in some form since other states have already axed their testing program.
Florida began a one year, $100,000 pilot program which tested 600 random high school athletes; out of these teenagers, just one of them turned up a positive steroid test. Needless to say, Florida discontinued the program just like New Jersey did with their testing. New Jersey tested 500 state championship athletes in 2006 and only one of these students had a positive test.
Now, Texas and Illinois are the only states which still test for high school steroid use on a wide scale level; Illinois began testing this year at sectional, regional, and state championship competitions with no results having been released yet. The only other form of high school steroid testing done is by individual high schools that can afford to conduct their own tests. In my opinion, this is the only way that high school steroid testing should be done.
If a high school really thinks that they have a problem or are a rich enough district to provide money for steroid tests then let them do what they want. However, I agree with Sen. Patrick in thinking that it’s a major waste of time and taxpayer money to test statewide for students who might possibly be using steroids. And the thing is the number who might be juicing is so low that it isn’t cost effective to do any testing.
Consider that out of all the tests run at New Jersey, Florida, and Texas high schools (11,100) over the past couple of years, only 6 students were caught using steroids. This means that only roughly 1 out of every 2,000 steroid tests turned up a positive result while well over $6 million was spent between the 3 states to run the programs. So is it really worth $6 million-plus to catch 1 out of every 2,000 high school students who are juicing? What’s more, is seeing 1 out of every 2,000 students caught really going to discourage other kids from using steroids?
I seriously doubt that it will since the numbers of high school athletes using steroids are probably even lower than 1 in 2,000. You’ve got to remember that these tests are mostly done on state qualifiers and there aren’t going to be as many non-state level athletes taking steroids. And you really have to look at the overall picture which is that states are paying over $1 million for every 1 steroid user they catch. To me that just doesn’t make sense in any capacity.
Check out these other articles that we have published about high school students using Anabolic Steroids.
High School Kids using Anabolic Steroids - caught juicing in school bathrooms!
Random Steroid Testing for High School Athletes
Here's some links to discuss High School Anabolic Steroid Testing on the EliteFitness.com Forums
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