Students and steroids

September 19, 2006

American medical experts estimate one to three million athletes use steroids and they don't all play professional sports. Today, area teachers and parents learned this is a growing problem for high school athletes.

These days, high school games spark an excitement once reserved for the pros and the competitive similarities don't end off the field. There is over 3 million anabolic steroid users in America today and 15 to 20 percent of those are adolescents.

"Steroids and the high school athlete" is the focus of this morning's conference at Lourdes College.

. Money drives all of the drug trade and the drug usage. A 3 hour open discussion for parents and teachers to learn the painful reality.

Greg Boros, physical education teacher, says, "With all the stuff going in the media, our kids see that all these athletes are taking it so they feel the pressure to do it."

It's alarming how little conversation there is. USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan was there for the conversation. She covers the steroids pressure in professional sports.

"As long as baseball players are taking steroids and as long as Olympians are taking steroids, they are not only hurting themselves, they are hurting our children."

Images of those big name athletes, accused of using steroids, are part of this discussion.

The win at any costs that we see in our society today is going to continue to drive the use and we may see long-term problems, just like we found out with smoking. The hope here is to keep a national trend from becoming a local problem.