New test for Texas students: steroids

Texas is poised to become the first state to randomly test high school athletes for steroids -- the most dramatic step yet in a nationwide backlash against the dangerous muscle-building drugs that have infested locker rooms across America.

The Texas Senate this month approved a measure to test 3% of the state’s 740,000 high school athletes, or about 22,000 boys and girls, for steroids every year. The Texas House of Representatives approved a similar measure that would have an athletic association pay for the testing instead of the state.

Republican Gov. Rick Perry has not taken an official position on the legislation. But lawmakers expect him to sign the final bill, which would make Texas the first state to make all of its high school athletes subject to random steroid testing. New Jersey passed a steroid-testing law last year, but it applies only to high schoolers who reach playoffs.

California, Illinois, Florida and New Mexico have been debating steroid testing for student athletes, as health officials and parents increasingly voice fears that boys and girls are sacrificing their health for fleeting glories on the playing field.

Anti-steroid activists, who have clamored for testing for years, think momentum is building. But concerns linger about costs and about violating the privacy of thousands to catch a relative few. A California lawmaker’s proposal to randomly test about 20,000 high school athletes was rejected this month in a state Assembly committee amid opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union and the California Teachers Assn.

In Texas, parent Don Hooton of Plano described the Legislature’s action as a giant step forward. “Our hope is that this Texas legislation will be the first of a wave that will cross the other 49 states,” said Hooton, who began campaigning for tougher steroid laws after the death of his 17-year-old son, Taylor.

The teenager hanged himself in 2003 after using steroids and sinking into a depression. Taylor’s baseball coaches had told him he needed to bulk up if he wanted to pitch for the varsity team; he confessed to taking steroids after he suddenly gained 30 pounds of muscle, but he claimed he had stopped.

The drugs were found in his system after his death. The Hootons later found Mexican steroids in Taylor’s bedroom.

“As we learned with Rafael Palmeiro, just asking people whether they’re using steroids simply isn’t going to cut it,” Don Hooton said, referring to the pro baseball player who told a congressional panel, “I have never used steroids,” only to flunk a test less than five months later.

Experts say it is difficult to estimate how many student athletes are taking steroids, because users often conceal habits even from friends. But some experts believe 750,000 or more U.S. youngsters will use the drugs before graduating from high school. Monitoring the Future, a University of Michigan survey that has tracked drug use among seniors since 1975, found last year that 2.7% had used steroids.

Steroid abuse can cause cancer, kidney tumors and high blood pressure, as well as depression, sudden mood swings and violent “ ‘roid rages,” according to the National Institutes of Health. Among males, the drugs can lead to shrunken sex organs and premature baldness. Among females, they can trigger deepened voices and facial hair.

But many users show no outward side effects other than increased muscle mass, leading some experts to conclude that only rigorous testing will deter boys and girls from the drugs in a high school culture where athletic success often translates into popularity.

“I don’t take lightly government intrusion into our lives, but the seduction of these drugs is so strong for these kids,” said Charles Yesalis, a Penn State professor emeritus who is an authority on steroid use among young people. “They can take a boy or girl and significantly change their body. Winners are given more adulation than losers, and these drugs can really make a difference in who wins and who loses.”

Unlike human growth hormone and other more sophisticated performance enhancers, which cost more than $1,000 for a cycle of doses, anabolic steroids cost a few hundred dollars for a cycle. They can easily be bought over the Internet and from small-time drug dealers at gyms around the country.

Users typically take doses in cycles lasting six to 12 weeks, by popping pills or injecting the drug into muscles. Sometimes users “stack” steroids, taking several types at once.

Yesalis said that because steroid abusers can time their cycles to get around drug tests, states must conduct random checks throughout the year if they want to catch cheaters.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has admitted he used steroids as a champion bodybuilder, vetoed legislation in 2005 that would have banned high school athletes from using a host of performance-enhancing drugs, saying that the bill could have barred legal dietary supplements.

But Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has indicated he would be willing to consider narrower measures that focused on steroids, and Assemblyman Guy Houston (R-Livermore) proposed testing randomly selected students at California high schools four times a year.

However, the Assembly Education Committee voted down the legislation.

Under the Texas legislation, any student in high school athletics sanctioned by the state’s main competitive body, the University Interscholastic League, would have to submit to random steroid testing. Positive tests would bar athletes from competition, temporarily or permanently depending on the number of previous positive tests; refusal to be tested would be considered a positive test. Three percent of boy and girl athletes at the approximately 1,300 schools in the league would be selected.

Tests would be conducted multiple times during the year by certified laboratories. The legislation does not specify how the tests would be done. It calls for the Interscholastic League to be in charge of administering them.

The league is consulting with the National Center for Drug Free Sport, which operates the NCAA’s drug-testing program, about how to conduct checks.

Some Texas lawmakers have argued that decisions on whether to invade the privacy of youngsters should be left to individual school districts. Some school officials, meanwhile, have suggested that steroid fears are overblown. A recent Texas A&M; study found that steroid use among high school students was dropping due to greater public awareness about the dangers, and that less than 2% of seniors in the state took the drugs.

If the Texas bill becomes law, testing would start this fall, in time for football season.

“I’m hoping we don’t catch that many, but if we do, it will send a message: Don’t take steroids, because there’s a chance you’re going to get caught,” said Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, a Republican.

He added: “Just passing this is going to be locker talk all over the state of Texas.”

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miguel.bustillo@latimes.com