State Law Requires Random Steroid Testing
Sept. 6, 2007
Tonight, Local 2 Investigates the one drug most parents never think to warn their kids about. A new state law requires all student-athletes to submit to random steroid testing.
KPRC Local 2 investigative reporter Robert Arnold has been examining how this law will affect you and your family, along with some of the pitfalls.
"Robert, how big a problem is steroid use among teen athletes?" a KPRC Local 2 anchor asked.
That's why we have this new law. Lawmakers say it was the only way to fund a testing program large enough to give them that answer. It's going to include between 20 to 25,000 student-athletes, making it a bigger testing program than even the Olympics.
"It just wasn't something we thought could happen to us," said Don Hooton, whose son took steroids.
Taylor Hooton was by all accounts a model student-athlete -- a 6 feet 2, 180 pound pitcher for Plano West High School. Taylor's life was on track until a meeting with one of his coaches.
"(He) told Taylor and one of his buds they needed to get bigger to improve their chances of making the varsity team," Hooton said.
At the time, no one realized the impact of that meeting.
"What the coach didn't know was when Taylor walked back into the dugout after getting those instructions, over half of the boys on the bench were already doing anabolic steroids," Hooton said.
Taylor's father, Don Hooton, says what followed were sudden changes in their son. Massive muscle gain, followed by stealing to support his habit and uncontrolled outbursts.
"Taylor would take his pitching hand, and on two separate occasions, drove his fist through a sheetrock wall in a fit of rage," Hooton said.
By the time his parents figured out what was happening and got their son off anabolic steroids, Taylor was so overcome by depression he took his own life.
What the state wants to know is whether Taylor's case was isolated or an example of a bigger problem in high school athletics.
"Much of the data that we have is speculation or derived data," State Sen. Kyle Janek said.
Janek is one of the main architects of the new law.
"We think it should be a good deterrent to keep students from doing it. Those that get caught, that will help us get a better idea of how many students could be using illegal drugs.
The state's $3 million mandate will encompass all high school sports. Student-athletes are chosen at random from all over Texas. No warning is given before a test.
"It's an unannounced visit," said Charles Breithaupt with the University Interscholastic League.
The testing program is run by the University Interscholastic League, or UIL, which governs almost all high school sports. In fact, the UIL now requires all student-athletes and parents to sign this testing consent form. You don't sign, you don't play.
"Young people will sometimes take those risks, we know that they are risk takers," Breithaupt said.
UIL athletic director Charles Breithaupt says negative headlines in pro-sports, the ease of buying anabolic steroids on the Internet and intense pressure to succeed are the main motivators behind the state's need for testing.
"They're thinking about, 'How do I make the varsity right now? How do I get that college scholarship right now?' So they're not thinking long-term," Breithaupt said.
"Everyone we've talked to is for steroid testing in school. Here's the concern. Some legal, over-the-counter supplements have the potential to create a positive test. As far as UIL is concerned, a positive test is a positive test. It doesn't matter if it comes from legal supplements or illegal steroids," Arnold reported.
"I think that's going to be a problem," said Ron Counter, Strake Jesuit's head football coach.
Counter believes kids are more likely to try legal supplements than anabolic steroids.
"I think that's a bigger problem than steroids itself," Counter said.
"I would hope they get those things worked out," said Chris Jones, La Marque's head football coach. "A kid could be removed from a team even though he's not doing anything wrong."
The penalties for a positive test are severe. First time is a 30 day suspension from all games. Second is a one year ban. The third time is indefinite suspension. Breithaupt says the program won't work if you make allowances for supplements.
"If you do that then any parent can come up and say, 'Oh, my student was taking this,'" Breithaupt said.
"I really think that's the right approach to this," said Dr. Walt Lowe with the Roger Clemens Institute.
Texans trainer and co-medical director of the Roger Clemens Institute for Memorial Hermann, Lowe says zero tolerance will force parents to also recognize the dangers of legal supplements.
"Just because the label says it has one thing it, these are not medicines controlled by the FDA and they do not have to have in them what they say they have in them," Lowe said.
For Don Hooton, who tours the country warning kids about the dangers of illegal steroids, he hopes this new law will at least make parents realize steroids are just as big a threat as any other drug.
"The problem with steroids, unlike other drugs, is no one is talking to these kids about not doing this stuff," Hooton said.
While the new law is in effect, testing has not started. The UIL is still hashing out the details of the program and hopes to be up and running by next month.
Interestingly state lawmakers don't expect to find steroids to be a huge problem. Last year, 134 Texas schools conducted 12,000 steroid tests and had only one positive result.
