Steroid testing waste of money, By: Brian McCallum
Sept. 4, 2007
One-hundred thousand dollars from the Florida legislature for steroid testing in six high school sports. One-
hundred thousand dollars, right down the drain.
Give me the money. Nobody will miss it, and it will mean plenty more to me than it's going to mean to the safety of our high school athletes.
What, exactly, is that drop in the bucket supposed to accomplish? By ordering the Florida High School Athletic Association to undertake some kind of steroid testing for high school athletes -- six sports, including football, were chosen -- the state legislature has publicly tried to put a bandage on what is certainly a growing problem.
Understand that $100,000 will do virtually nothing. Each test costs about $175, and you can be sure the FHSAA isn't supplementing the money. It has been determined up to one percent of the athletes in the six sports will be tested.
Based on last year's participation numbers, that's about 775 of over 77,000 students.
An independent agency will randomly select schools at which to test and then randomly select athletes. There will be entire schools, entire rosters, perhaps entire counties untouched by this.
It is possible a single athlete could be tested twice in a year by playing two sports, meaning an even smaller sample of athletes in the state will be used.
Let's commend the choice of an independent agency to do the testing. And then let's recognize this is going to accomplish very little, or, more likely, nothing. The status of steroid abuse among high school athletes probably will be unchanged by this effort.
That likely won't bother anyone in the legislature, since the main idea here is to create the appearance of concern.
Testing probably isn't the best way to address this issue. On the surface, it makes sense. Research should reveal if there's a problem, so that would seemingly be the best way to start. Then, if there is a problem, educate and eradicate.
Be assured there is a problem. Biennial surveying of high school students by the Centers for Disease Control has shown adolescent steroid use to be growing. My home state (Louisiana) showed 8.4 percent usage by high school boys in a survey within the last decade. A later scientific study by two university professors found around 28 percent use by high school football players in one parish there.
Hard to believe? Believe it. An admittedly unscientific survey by my former newspaper in our own parish came within two-tenths of a percent of the same number. These were the players who admitted it anonymously on an offseason questionnaire.
There is a problem, and testing may or may not show it.
The odds are low of finding much steroid abuse in a sample as small as one percent. The concern is someone using misleading results to dismiss the possibility of a steroid abuse problem.
Surely, you say, if a sample as small as a few thousand can gauge the feelings of a couple hundred million Americans in a presidential race, testing a few hundred Florida athletes can determine whether or not there is a steroid issue in this state.
Testing for steroids is not like polling voters on their presidential preference. Steroid use is not found scientifically. It is found by following the signals. Children do not take steroids based on their demographics.
Are there trends? Yes, confusing ones and mostly anecdotal ones. Some believe rich kids use steroids because they can afford them. Others believe poorer kids use them to get big and strong enough to win a college scholarship.
Some believe kids who already use recreational drugs are more likely to use steroids because they already have dismissed the risks of drug use.
Others believe steroid users are so concerned about physical fitness they wouldn't go near recreational drugs. Studies have found particular races to be more likely to abuse steroids.
All of those things seem to make sense. Some are contradictory, and in some cases both could be true. Yes, rich kids use steroids. So do poor ones.
So what do we do about this? We teach.
A program exists that has proven to curb steroid use in young athletes. Adolescents Training and Learning to Avoid Steroids was developed in Oregon and has spread to other parts of the country. The National Institute on Drug Abuse funds it, and one key is the avoidance of preaching doomsday in favor of having other kids teach each other in an entertaining way.
There will always be people determined to do things even they may consider risky or dangerous. We can only pray for those people to remain safe.
There are others who are simply uneducated and are likely to make intelligent choices once given good information.
These are people who can be helped. By a real effort, not by a public charade.
