Legal Clips, [July 2007]A year after New Jersey became the first state to mandate random steroid testing for high school athletes, Texas and Florida are on the verge of launching their own testing programs, and Illinois may not be far behind. Texas Governor Rick Perry recently signed into law the nation’s most ambitious attempt to keep illegal performance-enhancing drugs out of high school sports. Florida legislation still awaits the signature of Governor Charlie Crist. The Illinois High School Athletic Association also has plans to move ahead with a testing program as soon as next year, with or without the General Assembly’s help. Spurred by recent allegations in professional sports of steroid use and by stories of teenage athletes suffering adverse effects after using the man-made hormones, states have taken greater interest in testing on the high school level. According to a recent report by the University of Michigan, 2.7% of high school seniors have used steroids at some point, 1.8% in the past year. The statewide programs in New Jersey, Texas, and Florida each mandate different penalties. Athletes who test positive would get a 90-day suspension from sports in Florida, a one-year suspension in New Jersey and, in Texas, a 30-day suspension for a first offense, a one-year suspension for a second offense, and a permanent ban for a third offense.
Texas’ program will be the most expansive. Between 20,000-25,000 of students in all sports, about 3% of all the state’s high school athletes, will get tested. The legislature has allotted $3 million a year for testing. Florida’s one-year pilot program calls for testing 1% of the states almost 59,000 high school athletes in football, baseball, and weightlifting, for which the legislature has allotted $100,000. New Jersey tests only during state championship tournaments, sampling 5% of the approximately 10,000 student-athletes. In the first year of the program, New Jersey reports that every test for the fall sports season came back negative for steroids. In Illinois, a sports-medicine committee of the state high school sports association is putting the finishing touches on a testing proposal. Kurt Gibson, the association’s assistant executive director, stated the board of directors will solicit input from member schools this fall and could decide by early 2008 whether to go forward with testing for the 2008-2009 school year. Mr. Gibson says the association is still debating how to finance the proposal since the athletic association, not the state legislature, is putting it together.
In 2004, the California legislature passed a bill to mandate testing, but it was vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 2005, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson pledged $330,000 for steroid testing and created a task force on prevention, but the legislature still has not laid out a statewide testing program. Two major concerns are raised when steroid testing is proposed: 1) the high cost of the tests; and 2) privacy concerns. Even though the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003 gave the constitutional green light to drug test discrete groups of students, such as athletes, John Stewart, commissioner of the Florida High School Athletic Association, believes legal challenges to state laws mandating testing of student-athletes for steroids will occur. Many states, including New York, favor the less-costly avenue of education rather than testing to deter young athletes from trying steroids.
Stateline.org
By Chris Hamby
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