MSNBC reports that experts give high-school steroid testing an “F”

MSNBC has reported that some experts note that politicians are hyping up the dangers of doping in collusion with well-meaning but misguided parents aided partly by a growing drug testing industry, and that testing kids for PEDs will not only prove ineffective, but counterproductive and wasteful.

This is a position endorsed by Dr. Charles Yesalis, Anthony Roberts, Dr. Norm Fost, Steve Courson, Matt Chaney, and many other steroid experts who have long felt that he position of the anti-doping authorities, and their measures to enforce that position, represents an untenable stance.

Florida’s steroid testing program was canned for budget concerns after an unsuccessful trial run, but New Jersey, Texas and Illinois all have active statewide mandated steroid testing.

Yesalis has been quoted as saying he’d get behind steroid testing if the loopholes used to fool the tests were closed and it were affordable – a standard the current testing doesn’t meet. Courson and Chaney have echoed these same thoughts, with Courson adding that he is simply against steroid testing in high schools because it doesn’t work to catch many users, nor serve to deter users. Fost has likened the current state of steroid hysteria to “reefer madness” an allusion to the marijuana scare of the depression-era that was later discredited as propaganda. Roberts was recently quoted during an interview on XM 98 SIRIUS Radio as saying that the concept of fairness in athletics is “flexible.”

And it seems that the experts are right – while the politicians and parents – are wrong. According to MSNBC:

• In Texas, for the entire period of testing so far (February 2008 through May of 2009), 45,193 students have urinated into cups. Nineteen have come up positive. The cost of the program over the two years was $3 million, or $157,894 per positive test.
• In Florida, the state spent $100,000 testing about 600 athletes during the 2007-2008 year and found one positive.
• New Jersey has spent $100,000 per year over nearly three years, testing 500 students per year. So far there have been two positives.
• During the 2008-2009 school year, Illinois spent $150,000 testing 684 students. Zero tested positive for unauthorized substances.