High school steroid testing a sad sign of the times, By: Ben Munro

Add one more test to the great high school experience, at least in Texas.
Driving tests, scholastic aptitude tests … urine tests?
Last week, lone star state legislators OK’d random steroid testing for football players and other athletes to curb suspected widespread use throughout the football-rich state as the saga of the juiced-age of sports continues.
One of the nation’s largest states approving $3 million for testing high schoolers will surely become a platform for hot debate – privacy issues, the amount of money allotted, is the problem far-reaching enough to warrant state-mandated screenings?
But at the end of the day, it’s a sad day no matter if you’re pro- or anti-testing.
Sad, because this news item doesn’t deal with artificially-made sluggers like Jose Canseco or Raphel Palmerio or a roided-up NFL killing machine disguised as a defensive end.
We’ve now started to police kids for this stuff. Just how did we get to this point?
This decision by the state of Texas speaks to a larger epidemic of course. The Dallas Morning News, in an investigative report, estimated that hundreds of thousands of teen athletes across the U.S. use steroids.
In fact, New Jersey adopted a smaller-scale steroid screening program last year while Florida has plans in place for one as well.
The big question now: Will others follow suit? Seeing how other states react in the next few years will be quite interesting.
The lure of steroids in the now ultra competitive climate of high school is apparently awfully tempting, even with the harmful effects being pretty common knowledge.
In a football-consumed state like Texas, there’s so much competition for positions, so much competition for scholarships. For some, a full ride to a Division I-A school is a way to a better life — one that includes a college education, playing on national television and in front of 90,000 fans.
What wonders a little boost could do, especially when recruiters from, say, the University of Texas or Texas A&M are on hand. Plus, in a college and professional sports world of bulging biceps, young athletes want to model their physiques after those of their unnatural-looking heroes.
But with this latest move, the state of Texas hopes to deter that thought process — and, ultimately, partaking in steroids — by randomly testing tens of thousands of students next year.
And it’s the right avenue to attack the problem. Some would argue that the $3 million should have been put towards education about steroids, but the ubiquitous danger of being caught is often the greatest deterrent for anything.
It’s sad but true. For instance, the intoxicated driver doesn’t fear causing an accident on his way home. But he sure fears that patrol cruiser that might appear in his rear-view mirror.
While coaches should, no doubt, continue to educate players about the seriousness of shooting-up, preaching the dangers of steroid use — the liver damage, the tumors, the psychological effects — often falls upon deaf ears. But the thought of being exposed as a cheater might steer a kid, who’s just learning to drive, away from driving a needle into his, or her, body. At least, that’s what the hope is.
Should this program prove successful, it could become a model for other states.
After all, if the nation’s high school football capital could successfully curtail its steroid problem, others will be tempted to do the same.
Will Georgia?
After all, if prep football is the breeding ground for high school steroid use, Georgia stands as a big-time football state in its own right.
Steroids won’t go any time soon and it doesn’t look like the scope of who’s being testing is on the decline either.
It’s just a sad sign of the times.