Statewide Interscholastic Testing Programs for Performance-Enhancing Drugs on the Decline: How We Got Here

National surveys indicate that 1%-4% of high school students report use of anabolic steroids [1]. Steroids have a variety of benefits in regard to athletic improvement. They are used to increase muscle size and strength as well reduce body fat. Additionally, they provide quicker recovery between workouts which allows athletes quicker recovery after strenuous exercise. This quick recovery allows them to work out longer, harder, and more often [2]. Steroids come in two forms; injectable and oral. The most popular of the injectable types include Deca-Durabolin, Depo-Testosterone, and Equipoise while of the oral steroids; Andadrol, Dianabol and Winstrol are the most widely used by teenage athletes. Both injectable and oral steroids can have serious side effects. Some of these side effects include acne, swelling, development of sexual characteristics of the opposite gender, mood swings, aggressive behavior, increase in poor cholesterol levels, and stunted growth. Perhaps even more troubling is the fact that oral based steroids produce liver toxicity and can damage other internal organs [2]. Despite these severe side effects, teenage athletes have continued a steady progressive movement toward their use with the hope of improving their abilities. In 2006, New Jersey became the first state to mandate testing of performance-enhancing drugs (PED’s) for high school athletes; soon after, Florida, Illinois, and Texas followed suit [3]. The impetus to test high school athletes may have been tied to highly publicized cases like the 2003 steroid-linked suicide of Taylor Hooten or the more recent discovery of the distribution of performance enhancing drugs to two high school seniors as a part of the Biogenesis scandal [4]. Additionally, in 1995 the U.S. Supreme court ruled that drug testing high school athletes was constitutional which paved the way for PED testing to commence. The leaders of participating high school associations use the findings of the aforementioned national survey along with their stated concern of fostering fair play and protecting the health of their youth to justify drug testing of athletes. Given the deactivation of the statewide PED testing program in Florida, and most recently in Texas, this paper looks to illuminate the issues that hamper effective interscholastic PED testing.