{"id":2893,"date":"2014-05-13T13:14:38","date_gmt":"2015-06-06T17:28:23","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2015-06-19T14:14:58","modified_gmt":"2015-06-19T21:14:58","slug":"anabolic-steroid-testing-texas-high-school-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elitefitness.com\/articles\/anabolic-steroid-testing-texas-high-school-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Anabolic Steroid Testing – Texas Spends $6 million and Catches 4 High School Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.\u00a0 Instead, Texas has created one of the biggest taxpayer wastes in history and lawmakers are already considering scrapping the plan.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I will always be a big supporter of people\u2019s freedom to use anabolic steroids to gain size and muscle.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing wrong with a knowledgeable adult using steroids to enhance his physique and build muscle mass.\u00a0 In fact, I think it\u2019s incredibly stupid that lawmakers haven\u2019t legalized steroids in many nations since there are far more dangerous and widely available substances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"Anabolic<\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

Random Steroid Testing for High School Athletes <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

But even though I definitely support people\u2019s rights to juice as they please, it's a terrible idea for high school students to use steroids.\u00a0 Most high school students don\u2019t have the knowledge or weight training necessary to get the maximum out of their stacks. \u00a0And even if they did, teenagers already produce enough hormones to build significant muscle so they don\u2019t need to be using steroids.<\/p>\n

Even with that being said, I still think it\u2019s absolutely ridiculous when states decide to enact high school steroid testing.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 And when you factor in how many millions of dollars get put towards testing then you\u2019re just talking about a huge waste of taxpayer money.<\/p>\n

Of course, some states don\u2019t worry about wasting taxpayers\u2019 money on frivolous testing programs.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 And the states in question have been determined to stop this suspected high school steroid usage problem before it gets any bigger.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Two years later, Dewhurst and Flynn\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 And it wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

The state of Texas rapidly moved towards the program\u2019s first benchmark of 10,000 tested students.\u00a0 And what were the results of the $6 million program which sought to uncover a huge high school steroid use problem?\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cincredible success\u201d. \u00a0Of course he doesn\u2019t think the success has come from spending $6 million to catch an average of 1 out of 2,500 students using steroids.\u00a0 Instead he believes the success comes in the fact that the program could deter other students who are thinking of juicing.<\/p>\n

\"Lt.Flynn said, \u201cWe don't have a bunch of pelts hanging on the wall.\u00a0 The success is that we haven't had a lot of positive tests.\u201d\u00a0 Lt. Gov. Dewhurst agrees with Flynn and he said, \u201cTesting is deterring our young people from putting their lives at risk or wrecking their bodies through the use of illegal steroids.\u201d\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Anybody who \u201ctested\u201d positive was suspended for the first 30 days of their sport\u2019s season.<\/p>\n

Republican Sen. Dan Patrick is one person who thinks that the Texas high school steroid testing is a huge waste of time and money.\u00a0 He believes the $6 million put towards the tests could be better used in preventing drug and alcohol usage among high schoolers.\u00a0 Ever since the inception of the steroid testing program, Patrick has been battling to end it or at least scale it down.<\/p>\n

And scaling down the program would certainly be a worthwhile consideration since 40,000 \u2013 50,000 students are expected to be tested by this June.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Needless to say, Florida discontinued the program just like New Jersey did with their testing.\u00a0 New Jersey tested 500 state championship athletes in 2006 and only one of these students had a positive test.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 The only other form of high school steroid testing done is by individual high schools that can afford to conduct their own tests.\u00a0 In my opinion, this is the only way that high school steroid testing should be done.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 However, I agree with Sen. Patrick in thinking that it\u2019s a major waste of time and taxpayer money to test statewide for students who might possibly be using steroids.\u00a0 And the thing is the number who might be juicing is so low that it isn\u2019t cost effective to do any testing.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 So is it really worth $6 million-plus to catch 1 out of every 2,000 high school students who are juicing?\u00a0 What\u2019s more, is seeing 1 out of every 2,000 students caught really going to discourage other kids from using steroids?<\/p>\n

I seriously doubt that it will since the numbers of high school athletes using steroids are probably even lower than 1 in 2,000.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got to remember that these tests are mostly done on state qualifiers and there aren\u2019t going to be as many non-state level athletes taking steroids.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 To me that just doesn\u2019t make sense in any capacity. \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Check out these other articles that we have published about high school students using Anabolic Steroids.<\/p>\n

High School Kids using Anabolic Steroids - caught juicing in school bathrooms!<\/a><\/p>\n

Random Steroid Testing for High School Athletes <\/a><\/p>\n

Here's some links to discuss High School Anabolic Steroid Testing on the EliteFitness.com Forums<\/a><\/p>\n