Texas lawmakers must decide whether to eliminate the controversial $6 million high school steroid testing program when they begin their 2008 legislative session next week. In the first year of the program, the State conducted over ten thousand doping tests only to find 4 steroid positives out of 10,117 tests; an additional 22 cases were considered positive simply because students did not comply with testing rules but NOT because they tested positive for a banned substance (”Lawmakers to consider future of steroid testing,” January 9).

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 program chugging along, scale it down or eliminate it. The 2009 legislative session starts Tuesday.

Republican State Senator Dan Patrick will use his influence to eliminate the “colossal waste of taxpayer money.”

Republican state Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston, 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.

Republican representative Dan Flynn sponsored the steroid testing bill and, amazingly, considers it an “incredible success.” He asserts that the half-hearted and flawed testing protocol is an effective deterrent based on the small number of student-athletes who tested positive for steroids.

The point of testing was to act as a deterrent against steroid use, not catch teens using drugs, said Rep. Dan Flynn, a Republican from Van.

“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.”

Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, who made steroid testing in high schools one of his top priorities, concurs with Rep. Flynn asserting that the Texas high school steroid testing program is an effective deterrent. 

Testing is “deterring our young people from putting their lives at risk or wrecking their bodies through the use of illegal steroids,” Dewhurst said.

Hopefully, lawmakers will focus on educational priorities especially in a struggling economy rather than continue throwing money at a questionable steroid testing program.