People who are not convinced on the effectiveness of steroid testing program in high schools still ask this question. Is it worthy to spend the taxpayer’s money on steroid testing where most states suffers from budgetary constraints? Should the money for steroid testing spent on more important activities or projects such as improving the quality of education and providing more facilities to some high schools in the country. Spending thousands of dollars and even millions in the early implementation of the program was not justified by the minimal number of students who failed the steroid test.

But again, legislators and most school officials are one in defending their program. It is still the best method of deterring students particularly athletes to take any performance enhancing drugs like anabolic steroids and human growth hormones. Just recently, the NJSIAA announced that the steroid testing program in New Jersey high schools is back. Lawmakers had already hinted before that they will scrap the budget for the testing but when the budget was approved for the school year 2010-11, steroid testing is still included. This report was confirmed by NJSIAA executive director Steve Timko to the media.

Under the current set-up, the state and the NJSIAA will each share $50,000 to cover the cost of the testing. On the average the NJSIIA conducts 500 random tests each year to its student athletes who participates in state tournaments and other competitions. Bob Daly, NJSIAA assistant director said that they were able to test 490 athletes in 2009-10 and all of them returned negative results for performance-enhancing drugs.

New Jersey was the first state to test high school athletes for steroids followed by Texas and Illinois. After 4 years of the implementation of the program, only one student failed the steroid test. The NJSIIA already subjected almost 2,000 student athletes to undergo steroid testing from 2006-2010. Daly said that the result proves that the program is an effective deterrent for students to take banned substances aimed to improve performance.

The result of steroid testing in Texas schools has also similar results with New Jersey. The two recent results published by the University Interscholastic League only revealed 2 students who failed the tests. The UIL tested 3,133 students in fall and 3,300 student athletes in spring.

The cost of the program in Texas is much higher as compared with other states with steroid testing. The state already spent $7 million dollars but they only caught 21 cheating athletes.

At least this year’s budget was slashed to only $750,000 but many still consider the amount too much for such a program. An editorial published in the San Angelo Standard Times suggest that lawmakers should instead focus on other issues. “All this isn’t to suggest that Texans shouldn’t worry about whether young people are taking steroids. Rather, the point is that the best use of public money on this issue is to educate athletes about the dangers of steroids and to train coaches and other educators to recognize who is using them.” said in the article.

Steroid use among student athletes may not be that rampant as reported by some organizations. This is evidenced by the negligible positive results of the steroid tests. Proper steroid education is still the best deterrent.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS