High School Steroid Testing Not In Governor's Budget, By: Adam Adkins

May 26, 2006

TAMPA - Even after legislators sunk companion bills seeking a three-year steroid testing program for high school student-athletes and struck the steroid-testing language from another bill before it passed, budget writers for the House and Senate agreed to allocate $200,000 for a limited testing program starting next year.

However, when Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Thursday trimmed $448.7 million from the state's budget for the next fiscal year, the steroid-testing funds were among his cuts, meaning there won't be statewide testing for athletes next year.

"I think it's unfortunate he cut it out," said Hillsborough County director of athletics Vernon Korhn. "There is a lot of talk, obviously, about the use of steroids at the professional level, and now it has filtered down. I was kind of hoping this would pass so that we could find out exactly where we are at [in terms of use] at the high school level. We all would like to know that, and this was a method of doing that."

Long-time Hillsborough football coach Earl Garcia doesn't exactly share Korhn's sentiments. Garcia doesn't have a problem with the funds being cut.

Though Garcia thinks steroid abuse is a problem, especially among college and professional athletes, he doesn't believe the problem is serious at the high school level.

And he doesn't think athletes should be singled out for testing or that steroids should be the only illegal substance tested for.

"Let's test all our kids if we're going to test them, if we're worried about our children's health," Garcia said. "I think in the general population, steroid use is probably a sliver amount of the drugs used in high school, when you think about marijuana and all the other stuff. In the big picture, there are a lot more problems to educate our kids about."

Had they passed, the bills introduced this year probably would have given some indication of how prevalent steroid use is among high school athletes.

House Bill 1003, sponsored by Rep. Marcelo Llorente, R-Miami, a former baseball player at Tulane University, proposed a three-year steroid testing plan for student-athletes across all sports.

The bill called for no fewer than 1 percent of the 215,000 athletes across the state to be randomly tested each year. The penalties included were a 90-day suspension for a first failed test, a one-year suspension for a second offense and a permanent suspension for a third offense. Also, each student-athlete who failed a test would participate in a mandatory drug education program sponsored by the school, the district or an approved third-party organization.

The bill asked for $3 million to pay for the program, with yearly evaluations in the Senate and the House. A companion bill in the Senate was sponsored by Sen. Durell Peaden, R-Crestview.

However, neither bill made it to a floor vote, with both stalling in committees: House Bill 1003 in the Civil Justice Committee, the second of five it needed to pass through; and Senate Bill 1928 in the Judiciary Committee, the third of five.

House Bill 7119, which focused on setting up a task force to investigate high school recruiting tactics, added language to include an FHSAA-mandated steroid-testing pilot program for football, baseball, softball and weightlifting during postseason competition. However, the steroid-testing reference was removed in a committee before the bill was approved by the House and Senate on May 4, and the last effort failed Thursday with Bush's budget cuts.

"Of course, the governor has final say and we respect his right to veto," FHSAA commissioner John Stewart said. "We had hoped we could get some kind of testing program going, but the biggest problem is the cost."

Studies have shown that between 2 and 4 percent of high school athletes use steroids, and Stewart said the FHSAA will continue its education of athletes against using steroids or other drugs. He also said he is certain this issue will be brought up again in future legislation.

"I think as long as it is a major issue in professional athletics like it is today, it will be an issue," Stewart said. "The only way to stop it is through testing. Education is an important part, and we will do our part in that regard, but if you really want to put a stop to it, you have to test for it."