A year after New Jersey became the first state to mandate random steroid testing for high school athletes, Texas and Florida are on the verge of launching their own testing programs, and Illinois may not be far behind.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) on Friday (June 15) signed into law the nation's most ambitious attempt to keep illegal performance-enhancing drugs out of high school sports. Florida's legislation still awaits the signature of Gov. Charlie Crist (R).
The Illinois High School Association also has plans to move ahead with a testing program as soon as next year, with or without the General Assembly’s help.
The programs will cost the states a considerable amount of money:
Texas’ program, which Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (R) steered through the Legislature, will be the nation’s most expansive. Between 20,000 and 25,000 students in all sports in the coming school year — or about 3 percent of the state’s nation-high total of 742,341 high school athletes — will have their urine tested for steroids, according to Charles Breithaupt, athletics director for the University Interscholastic League, which will put the program into practice. The Texas Legislature has allotted $3 million a year for testing. Officials in neighboring Louisiana have shown interest in emulating the program.
Florida’s one-year pilot program would be much smaller, calling for testing of 1 percent of the state’s almost 59,000 high school athletes in football, baseball and weightlifting. The Legislature has allotted $100,000 for testing.
And as early results indicate, the cost may not be worth it:
In its testing program’s first year, New Jersey reported that every test for the fall 2006 sports season came back negative for steroids. The results from winter and spring sports have not yet been released. But the executive committee for the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, the organization in charge of the testing, has voted unanimously to renew the program for another year.
No comments:
Post a Comment