Testing It Up

It is devastating for anyone to find out that someone they cared about is hooked on an illegal substance such as anabolic steroids – but it is perhaps most devastating for a parent to find that out about their teenaged kids. One of the things that parents can do to ensure that their kids are not using steroids – or to catch them if they are and do something about it – is to have them undergo testing. Asking them to do that, however, is not going to be easy.

There are advantages and disadvantages associated with steroid testing your teens, and here are some of those points, as shared by Lena Butler.

Advantages. Having your teens undergo testing can potentially save lives, if your teens are indeed taking steroids. If they are not, then knowing the results of the test will give parents the peace of mind that they need, realizing that their children are not in any kind of danger. This is especially true for teen athletes, the kind of student that would usually be vulnerable to the temptation of steroid abuse. As parents, you can take care of your children as well as their athletic careers by ensuring that they do not experiment with steroids.

Disadvantages. Before parents ask their teens to undergo testing, they have to be prepared for backlash. If the idea of steroid testing and why it has to be done is not received well by the teenager, he or she may feel that he or she is not being trusted. Your teen may take a certain attitude with you, and consider it as an invasion of their privacy.

A concerned father’s efforts towards saving other kids from abusing steroids after losing his own led to the passing of a new bill in the House of Representatives.

House Bill 272 was sponsored by Representative Jack Franks, who was introduced to Don Hooton by former University of Illinois and Chicago Bears player Dick Butkus. Don Hooton’s son Taylor died after using steroids, and he has since been trying to get steroids testing laws passed across the country. A pilot program now in effect in Texas is reportedly doing well.

The bill, which was unanimously approved by the House of Representatives (116-0), allows the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) to conduct random steroid testing at any point during the sports season from a test pool composed of all participating athletes; currently, testing is only being done among teams who advance to the postseason. The IHSA, which is the governing body for high school athletics in Illinois, can also disqualify a player who tests positive. The player’s school can determine the accompanying penalty on a case to case basis.

House Bill 272 now goes to the Senate for consideration.

The proposal will aim to conduct random steroid testing on about 1,000 students from at least 25% of Illinois high school. Urine samples will be used to test for the presence of performance enhancing drugs.

The aim of expanding the coverage of testing is to protect students who are feeling more pressure to do well in athletics, with lucrative scholarships at stake. Since the IHSA started postseason steroid testing last fall, though, no athlete has tested positive for steroid use. Of the 264 tests, six tests came back positive but all were waived by the IHSA, citing medical conditions.

Chicago Drug Screening

It’s not just the professional athletes who have to deal with the pressure to perform. The college athlete is now accorded almost the same level of exposure as his or her professional counterpart, with their games now beamed across the globe through cable networks such as ESPN. It is not too uncommon for someone in Asia, for instance, to root for the Buckeyes football team.

This means that they are as much exposed to the temptation to resort to performance-enhancing drugs as are the pros. Athletic coaches in the different colleges, though, are pro-actively trying to keep their players away from steroids. Methods such as random testing are being employed by schools across the country to ensure that everyone is playing clean.

Known steroids are not the only things that college athletes should watch out for. Certain over-the-counter supplements are also known to generate positive results in random tests, so athletes should be careful about what they take. Since the Food and Drug Administration does not regulate supplements very well, consumers are not sure about what they are taking in. To be safe, college athletes should actively consult with their respective coaches before taking anything, even if they are ‘just supplements’. Trainers generally have a list of everything that is legal and illegal and would be able to give the proper advice.

The good news is that college athletes do not normally go down the steroid route due to financial constraints. Performance-enhancing drugs are rather expensive, and there are very few college athletes who have that kind of money to splurge.

The other factor that will discourage the college athlete from touching steroids would be dreams of a career with the pro leagues. In the pros, the most a player who gets caught using steroids would suffer is a suspension – a slap on the wrist – and then he or she will be allowed to play again. The environment is not as forgiving for college athletes. A violation may very well mean the end of a career, and not just with the college team. It can also squash any chances of making it to the pros.

Whether these factors will be enough to keep college athletes away from steroids is really difficult to ascertain.

Last year, the state of Texas tested about 29,200 students for steroid use, and the good news is that only eleven students are using performance-enhancing drugs. Some lawmakers are now suggesting that they downsize the program, which reportedly costs the state $3 million per year.

The students who tested positive were mostly either football players or wrestlers, and all of them were male. The test pool consisted of randomly selected student athletes from a cross-section of sports, numbering nearly 740,000 from all over Texas.

Texas lawmakers may propose to modify the random steroids drug testing program to a statistical sampling as opposed to the current widespread testing method, or they may opt to limit the testing to certain sports. Regardless of the outcome, the program seems to have produced a positive result in that it increased parents’ awareness about the dangers of steroid use and inspired coaches to be more proactive about monitoring and protecting their athletes from steroid use. The program mandates a thirty-day suspension from competition for a first-time offender.

A spokesperson for Texas Governor Rick Perry has said that the governor will be open to the idea of scaling down the testing program. Athletic coaches across the state have also suggested that it may be more effective and beneficial to resort to increased awareness and education among students instead of the more expensive random steroid testing, although they do not believe that the same concept should hold true for other illegal drugs. A number of high school coaches now believe that the money for steroid testing may be better spent on other programs.

All things considered, the results seem to have given lawmakers and coaches alike a positive outlook. An ideal figure may have been zero violators but the low numbers are comforting. The clamor for testing stemmed from the need to find out whether Texas students are doing the right thing; and by the looks of it, it seems like they are.

The world of baseball is still reeling from that Sports Illustrated expose, and one of its stars, Red Sox’s David Ortiz, delivered a sort-of state-of-the-game address during a media blitz at their team’s spring training facility.

His proposal? Test them, and test them all! He’s proposing to put an end to the random testing hoopla and to test every baseball player. “I would suggest that everybody gets tested,” he declares. “Not randomly. Everybody.” He suggests further to “go team by team, testing everybody”, anywhere between three to four times a year. And if someone tests positive, he suggests to ban the guy for the rest of the year.

Basically, he wants everyone who is using performance enhancing drugs cleaned out of baseball. He believes that this game belongs to “the families”, which makes it very important to keep the game clean. The best way to do that for Ortiz is to toss ‘steroid cheaters’ out of the game.

He seems to be concerned about public reaction to baseball players after the revelation from Sports Illustrated. The ‘tarnish’ affects everybody, as there is probably now a tendency for fans to look at every single player and ask themselves: Is this play for real? Is he using performance enhancing drugs to up his game? He feels that this is the way the issue is hurting baseball – by clouding enthusiasts’ minds with doubt about how clean the games are being played.

Ortiz did, however, express support for Alex Rodriguez and his brave admission of past wrongdoings. This is not apparently part of his steroid plan, as he would also like to put an end to “dragging ex-players to court” and for everyone to give A-Rod a break. He says that Rodriguez’s steroid use is now in the past, and it is probably in everyone’s best interest to forget the past and move forward. That is, of course, if it is indeed the case.

This declaration from Ortiz is getting mixed feedback from fans. He may be dreaming up what would be an ideal, but this, unfortunately, is not the entire picture and things are easier said than done. What do you think?