Texas to reconsider $6M steriod testing in schools

[mxsprocket1]

AUSTIN, Texas -By the tens of thousands, Texas student-athletes have been pulled out of class to urinate in a cup for the nation's largest high school steroids testing program.
Boys and girls in all sports, from football to tennis to cross country, have been randomly selected.
The results so far have found little to confirm fears that steroid use is a rampant problem. When the first 10,000 tests found only four positive results, critics declared the two-year program a waste of time and money.
Now state lawmakers must decide whether to keep the $6 million program chugging along, scale it down or eliminate it. The 2009 legislative session starts Tuesday.
The Texas legislator who sponsored the testing bill in 2007 calls it an "incredible success."
The point of testing was to act as a deterrent against steroid use, not catch teens using drugs, said Rep. Dan Flynn, a Republican.
"We don't have a bunch of pelts hanging on the wall," Flynn said. "The success is that we haven't had a lot of positive tests."
Momentum for tests started building in 2005. Headlines of steroid use by professional athletes fueled concerns it had trickled down to high schools. Two years later, Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst made a testing program one of his top priorities.
By the end of the current school year in June, officials expect between 40,000-50,000 public school students from all sports to be tested.
Critics rolled their eyes when the first results were released.
According to a University Interscholastic League report released Dec. 1, the first 10,117 tests produced only the four confirmed cases of steroid use. Two of the drugs identified were the anabolic steroid boldenone and a steroid called methylandrostandiol.
Another 22 cases were deemed "positive" results because students broke testing rules. They either refused to provide a urine sample, had unexcused absences the day they were selected, or left the testing area without approval. A positive test brought a 30-day suspension from play for the first offense.
The National Center for Drug Free Sport tested athletes at 195 schools between February and June 2008, covering 12 sports. Football (3,380) and girls' volleyball (835) were the sports most often tested. The UIL will update test results next month.
Republican state Sen. Dan Patrick has been a vocal critic of the tests, calling them a "colossal waste of taxpayer money" that could be better spent battling recreational drug and alcohol use among teens.
With less than a full year of testing completed, Dewhurst said it's too early to determine if major changes should be made.
Testing is "deterring our young people from putting their lives at risk or wrecking their bodies through the use of illegal steroids," Dewhurst said.
The program's cost compared to its findings could decide its future.
No other state screens student-athletes for steroids as comprehensively as Texas, but more limited testing elsewhere also hasn't found widespread steroid use in high schools.
In Florida, a one-year, $100,000 pilot program that tested 600 student-athletes was discontinued last year after only one student tested positive.
New Jersey began random steroid tests of student-athletes who qualify for team or individual state championships in 2006, but only one of 500 athletes screened in the program's first year tested positive.
The only other state that screens high school athletes for steroids, Illinois, began this school year with tests of competitors at regionals, sectionals and state championships. Results have not yet been announced.
Some individual high schools, school districts and football programs have also instituted steroid testing.
Flynn wants to the Texas program going, but is willing to consider scaling it down providing it remains an effective deterrent. The law requires only that a "statistically significant" number of athletes be tested.
High schools worry the state will push the cost to them. Keeping the current $6 million program would cost each school an extra $4,709 every two years.
Even if Texas continues testing, Rutledge said the early results and the small number of athletes caught cheating showed steroid use is not widespread.
"If one kid is taking steroids, it's a problem," Rutledge said. "It's not the epidemic that people feared it was."

Found here:
http://news.aol.com/article/texas-to.../300823?cid=14

[java568]

Thank God; this was such a waste of my tax money. I don't even believe that they tested anything besides football and girl's volleyball. If they did, they did it in a ridiculous fashion b/c I won state twice in tennis and was never tested. I guess they consider it random, but NCAA is also "random" and they test every year at National Championships. I started a thread about how ridiculous it was when they first started it. They sent out flyers saying not to take multivitamins or protein powder because it could be contaminated with steroids, and that would be your fault if caught. Total waste of money- END IT!

[EMISGOD]

Dan Patrick is correct.

[fayd]

Originally Posted by EMISGOD

Dan Patrick is correct.

Except the part where he said the money would be better spent battling recreational drug and alcohol use among teens.

[EMISGOD]

Originally Posted by fayd

Except the part where he said the money would be better spent battling recreational drug and alcohol use among teens.

That is theoretically less wasteful. Recreational drug and alcohol use does exist among high school teens, including Texas. Chasing after teen high school steroid users was a waste of money because they were mostly chasing phantoms...so, throwing money at trying to combat something that does exist has the possibility of being more productive than trying to combat something that exists predominantly in the paranoid minds of over-compensating legislators, hence, by that definition, it would be "better"...

I think their money would better still be spent elsewhere, though...

[Outside backer]

i cant imagine the price that cost

the ****ing military doesnt even random steroid test yet highschools will


they are just hating because texas highschool football > usa

lol

[njmuscle66]

Originally Posted by Outside backer

i cant imagine the price that cost

the ****ing military doesnt even random steroid test yet highschools will


they are just hating because texas highschool football > usa

lol

Personally I am just surprised that they got only 4 positives. I guess even high school athletes know how to cycle off in time for a drug test. Was the testing date random or a fixed date. Like the start of the school year. Given the amount of teenagers on steroids (I mean just use this board for an example with all the BOLD/superdrol posts, I agree that it is a waste of tax dollars, however despite the results, IMO this DOES NOT in any way change the fact that high school athletes are indeed using steroids

[SPACECLOWN]

Waste of govt money once again.

[dtrain13]

When I went to high school (92-96) our school was one of two in the entire country that had random athletic drug testing. Testing was done on performance enhancers and recreational drugs. You and your parents had to go to a class/watch a video/sign a bunch of papers. I had to do this twice a year for both football and baseball.

[njmuscle66]

Originally Posted by dtrain13

When I went to high school (92-96) our school was one of two in the entire country that had random athletic drug testing. Testing was done on performance enhancers and recreational drugs. You and your parents had to go to a class/watch a video/sign a bunch of papers. I had to do this twice a year for both football and baseball.

What do you mean by random. those being tested or the actual testing dates? Just curious

[ProWrestleFan]

I say stop it, it's a waste of time and money. All it does is draw more attention to steroids then what's needed.

[Skigazzi]

Originally Posted by njmuscle66

Personally I am just surprised that they got only 4 positives. I guess even high school athletes know how to cycle off in time for a drug test.

Lets see how they do now that Star Caps are off the market


(Im also shocked it was so low, but I also think its a waste of money)

[dtrain13]

Originally Posted by njmuscle66

What do you mean by random. those being tested or the actual testing dates? Just curious

Both. Also they could test even if your sport was out of season. List's of those being tested were posted outside the AD's office whenever and you basically had to check it first thing in the morning because if you were chosen you had to be there first thing that morning.

[Beejis60]

Originally Posted by dtrain13

Both. Also they could test even if your sport was out of season. List's of those being tested were posted outside the AD's office whenever and you basically had to check it first thing in the morning because if you were chosen you had to be there first thing that morning.

That's a good idea, though very pricey. A few years after I played, a lot of kids were asking me about SD and Mdrol (I still occasionally get it from people that are a few years out). I told them no way.

[dtrain13]

Originally Posted by Beejis60

That's a good idea, though very pricey.

Homewood-Flossmoor High School. For a public school it was expensive as hell to go there. They were funded quite well through property taxes also.

[dtrain13]

In four years I pissed three times. I played with some guys that were picked over 10 times and some that were never picked at all.

[ddfox]

I bet Novedex Xt caused the positive test for boldenone.

[Beejis60]

Originally Posted by ddfox

I bet Novedex Xt caused the positive test for boldenone.

Are you trying to be funny? That has been established in another thread.

[UHCougar05]

****ing David Dewhurst...Nothing like him and Rick Perry pissing away tax dollars on things that serve no purpose. I do like the cut of Dan Patrick's jib though... (no homo)

[ddfox]

Originally Posted by Beejis60

Are you trying to be funny? That has been established in another thread.

No, I meant an OTC caused the positive test. They only had 4 positive tests and I bet a few were from Novedex not anabolic steroids.