Officials in Texas are prepared to eliminate the embarrassingly expensive and ineffective UIL Anabolic Steroid Testing Program. In 2008, Texas passed legislation mandating drug-testing programs for anabolic steroids in students competing in extracurricular sports at public high schools. It was the largest and most costly steroid testing program in the history of high school sports. Several million dollars later, with little to show the taxpayers in the way of results, the legislature is currently unable to find funding to continue the program.
But after the first 50,000 tests produced fewer than two dozen confirmed cases, critics derided the effort as a waste of money. This month, with the state facing a projected $15 billion budget shortfall, the House’s first draft budget eliminated the program’s money. A Senate draft still includes funding.
Most people at every point on the steroid regulatory spectrum agree that anabolic steroid use by high school athletes is a problem. They generally agree with government efforts to reduce steroid use in teenage athletes. Unfortunately, politicians and their constituents reacted emotionally to the problem throwing millions of dollars at popular legislation without regard for ts effectiveness. People seem to be content with “feel good” endeavors that accomplish little. This was the case when it came to steroid testing in Texas.
There were several reasons that the program was doomed for failure but rather than revising the program to address these shortcomings, the sponsors are prepared to claim victory and say “mission accomplished” while abandoning future testing.
Even some one-time supporters of screening are wavering. “We accomplished our goal,” said state Rep. Dan Flynn, “and that was to educate and create a deterrent.”
The politician’s opinion is regrettably not based on science but on a self-serving effort to save face. Contrary to Rep. Flynn’s assertion, the “education” value of steroid testing is dubious. Furthermore, the research has not supported steroid testing as a deterrent.
Linn Goldberg, a national drug-testing expert and the head of the division of health promotion and sports medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, said “drug testing, as yet, is not a deterrent to use. There’s no evidence that it is.”
He called the Texas steroids program “a knee-jerk reflex so they can say they’re doing something.”
Dr. Goldberg’s study and another done in 2003 at the University of Michigan showed that drug testing did not have a significant effect on whether students continued to use drugs.
Everyone wants to find a magical solution that will eliminate steroid use by high school athletes. It seems like steroid education would be the obvious first step to the problem. However, it is understandable why state governments are so quick to go with drug testing. Steroid testing is big business with several corporations lobbying to land government contracts for high school testing. Politicians seem more willing to line the pockets of these corporations rather than investing in steroid education programs for public schools.
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