Texas High Schools to Steroid Test?

Its a pain of sorts, but that is the world and the society we live in. Steroids in high school is a very real thing, and we cannot turn our backs on it, we saw how far that gets us.

As a person who went through years of drug testing in high school, it really isn't a pain at all. It isn't that big of a deal to pee in a cup, is it?

yes, but neither of you would be tested if it happened in your state. I am a High School student, and know for a fact that there would be a major backlash in any state that implemented testing

I would have been tested when I was in high school and I probably would have failed. USA Rugby is bouncing around the same idea bout testing currently and I fall subject to that, and I am agreeing with them and encuraging it. You have nothing to fear if you have done nothing wrong.

I have nothing to fear, but it is time consuming, and any mistake within the testing lab could affect me greatly

Its not that time consuming, and I know I woudl ahe gladly taken a drug test in place of going to Bio or Calc. Hell Id take one righ tnow just to get out of work for an hour or 2

testing only works for what they can find. They can't test for HGH yet! If you set the standard (testing) out there, then the kids who will cheat anyway will continue to cheat in other ways and the other kids are just getting harassed for the simple reason - politicians want to have their name stamped on a hot button topic.

This is stupid. If you want to get rid of something harmful, wouldn't PREVENTING it be the appropriate method as opposed to finding it out after the fact??? They could spend LESS money educating and informing, pounding the truth into people's heads instead of ignoring the issue, ignoring the HUMAN element (these are REAL people's lives involved here) and regulating yet another aspect of institutional life.

Testing to catch past users isn't going to "prevent" anything in the future. Not only that, but testing goes on in the Pros TODAY and people are still using... duh.

Drug testing has been taken to courts and it is not an invasion of privacy. If the kids aren't taking steroids, then what's the problem?

The court decision may be legal, but I don't agree with it. If you're not growing pot in your basement, then why not let the government come in and check? If you don't have a meth lab in your back yard shed, then what's the problem? If you're not raping children, then why not voluntarily submit your DNA to a national database? Follow this train of thought you all are presenting as logic?

Do you think steroid testing in the major leagues is an "invasion?"

If it is covered under the CBA that you agree to when you sign a contract, then no. The players aren't forced to sign the contract. These kids are forced to attend public school, and without sports attendance numbers would drop significantly at many schools. They are being forced to submit to a drug test. These are minors we're talking about here.

They aren't being forced to play sports, only go to school. If they don't want to be drug tested, then don't play a sport. If they want to play a sport, then don't take steroids.

That is the legality behind it. For many of these kids, without sports they wouldn't attend school at all. They aren't being "forced" to play sports, but what other avenue do they have to get into college or the next level. It's a very dressed up arguement for mandatory testing of minors. It's like saying, to get to work you have to take the bus, but the bus costs $40, half your days salary, and you can't get to work any other way, forcing you to take the bus. What options are you left with? Quit the job and not pay bus fare (bad) or pay the exorbant bus fare and get to work, only to not make enough money anyway. This doesn't even get into the realm of testing minors. If you want your child tested, it should be up to you, not mandated by the state.

Except for the drug test doesn't cost half your salary, or any significany portion of anyone's salary.

The schools/ government are saying, "we want you to play sports. We want you to play sports without the use of steroids. We need to test you to make sure you aren't using steroids."

What is the harm of the testing? That people's privacy is being invaded? Don't you think that steroid use is a greater harm?

But when talking about people's civil rights and invasion of privacy, it starts with simple testing today, where does it stop? Once the precedence is there, everything else can run through the open door. If you give an inch today, it will be a yard tomorrow. Education about and prevention of an issue works 100% better than doing nothing and dealing with the aftermath. But since we're Americans, we'll continue to do it backwards...

Nope. Steroid testing is not worth violating American students civil liberties. This is a bigger issue than just testing for steroids, and sets a very dangerous judicial precedence.

Steroid use does hurt your health, and its side effects are widely proven, but those are decisions that people make on their own. In my opinion, it is not the government's position to police that. These are fundamental ideological differences between you and I, simply put.

Testing underage athletes for performance enhancing drugs would be akin to testing valedictorians for ritalin (sans prescription) that has aided them in their studies.

Too often people in the sports world think far too highly of themselves. Sports should be used as conduit to encourage children to attend school, not a deterrant for fear of drug testing.

There are much bigger issues state legislatures need to worry about than performance enhancing drug testing in high school athletes. Not to mention the public school systems across this country are fiscally floundering, teachers are underpaid, schools go without repairs, books are outdated, and the state wants to spend money on drug testing the athletes of the schools. It just seems like a half baked idea to me.

Or we could go down the government's typical path of control. Let them have their steroids, but tax the hell out of 'em (hey, it worked for other dangerous/deadly items like cigarettes, alcohol and automobiles, right?) then spend a ton of money enforcing the restrictions... until all we have is 50% of the people doing "bad" things and the other 50% of the people busting the first 50%... choose your side!

First, while it is a personal choice to take steroids, it hurts others chances of success in sports. I don't think their should be drug testing to prevent the teens from hurting themselves, as much as I think it should be done to protect the clean players.

Second, to claim that this sets a precedence and what will come next after steroid testing is the "slippery slope" fallacy. We can always prevent the next "invasion" of civil liberty, but to use the potential, unrelated outcomes far down the road to advocate doing nothing is not sound logic.

Third, you close with a non sequitur. Just because there are bigger issues doesn't mean that you ignore ALL the smaller issues. Yes, governments should pay more for schools, but what in the world does that have to do with drug testing? Yes, teachers salaries should be subsidized, new books should be bought, and schools should be repaired. Again, what does this have to do with drug testing? The state doesn't spend much money, because the testing is paid for by the students/parents(at least thats how it worked at my school).

Parents were forced to pay for the drug testing of their own children? Did you go to public or private school? I would seriously consider moving if I was forced to do this if my child wanted to play sports.

Public... I believe it was $20/test, twice a year. There were also random tests done daily, which I had done on me about three times in the course of four years.

When you want to know why something is happening, simply ask - "Who has the most to gain here?"

The clean students? Or the pighumping, greasy politicians who are making promises to "clean it up"?

Lt Governors don't have BETTER things to do/delgate that they have to step in and make sure everyone knows THEY are on task? He'll show everyone how tough Texas is, eh?

It's side-of-the-mouth policy. Put a plan in place and say "Look what I did?"

What's going to happen when some kid comes up hot on a test in error and gets his world crushed under the B.S.? What's going to happen the first time SOMETHING goes wrong? (and since humans are involved, SOMETHING will go wrong)

Better yet, HOW does this plan suggest we help ANY of the kids they'll CATCH???

Very few people do what's right for other people. They do what's right for themselves.

I've posted the same thing on almost every steroid thread on here, but never get an answer (except from you Manny). Wouldn't it be better to spend money researching steroids/HGH to try and harness the good powers of it?

Absolutely. I've responded to this multiple times before and got put on a spit because of it. Steroids at their core are medical advancements that aid the human body in muscle growth, injury recovery, and other benefits (asthma). The abuse of them is what causes the nasty side effects, or else they wouldn't be regularly prescribed by doctors to aid patients. HGH is similarly prescribed to aid the elderly when recovering from serious injury/surgery. They have good powers, and they are utilized. It's the idiots out there that think, "If some is good, a lot must be great!" And then they procede to abuse them.

An issue to the testing: long term reliable data will be impossible to obtain as long as the drugs are illegal; thereby forcing users/abusers to obtain them illicitly and use them without proper supervision.

Testing people doesn't prevent their usage, just like speed traps don't stop speeding.

Let's start the movement! Let's get some researchers in a room with Barry Bonds instead of reporters and I bet it would be WAY more interesting...

The ban-everything-bad mentality is for narrow minded folks.

HGH has KNOWN benefits to ANYONE over the age of 25-30. it "makes you feel young again" - How is that a bad thing? If it helps Barry go cove, imagine what it can do for the schlep at the office with the bad back or the old lady down the street with osteoporosis, etc... Learning and oveercoming ignorance is more beneficial than fearing and culturing ignorance.

As I drive away in my gasoline powered car...

Researchers with Bonds wouldn't help much without detailed dosage and progress charts over the last 8 (maybe) years. The push to take steroids is far to great for testing alone to ever combat. If I were running a baseball (sports actually) team, I'd begin to question players' desire to win if they weren't using every avenue possible to better themselves. I'm not saying its okay, but the positives far outweigh the negatives in the decision making process of an 18 year old high school/Latin player.