Senator pledges to bring steroid screening to HS

New York high schoolers may soon be required to pass another state-mandated test: an annual screening for anabolic steroids if State Senator Andrew Lanza (R.) from Staten Island gets his way.

New York high schoolers may soon be required to pass another state-mandated test: an annual screening for anabolic steroids.

State Sen. Andrew Lanza, a Republican from Staten Island, introduced legislation on Jan. 18 calling for secondary schools to test male and female student-athletes for the performance-enhancing drugs. The bill, originally drafted for public schools, will be amended to include private institutions, Lanza said.

Borrowing wording from legislation passed in Texas, which begins testing high school athletes next month after enacting the country's most comprehensive program last spring, the bill would require 30% of all high schools to screen for anabolic steroids, with 3% of athletes at designated schools to submit urine samples at least once a year.

Students would be required to sign a pledge to be drug-free and agree to random testing, and parents would have to sign a waiver acknowledging state laws regarding steroid possession and distribution, as a condition of athletic eligibility.

Lanza estimated the total number of tests to be in the "thousands," saying schools and athletes would be selected by the state Department of Education on a "blind, random basis." Athletic directors and coaches at all schools, Lanza added, would have the authority to single out individuals for testing based on "reasonable suspicion" of steroid abuse.

New York state legislators have introduced similar proposals every year since 1997, but the bills never reached the governor's desk.

With public discussion now focused on criminal investigations into steroid distribution and use, and with the heavy media coverage of the Mitchell Report, released last month by former Sen. George Mitchell in response to the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball, lawmakers say the climate may be right to finally pass steroid
legislation.

"You look at what happened in professional sports, and people say it got so bad because people looked the other way," Lanza said. "I think this legislation sends a very strong message that we're not going to look the other way in New York when it comes to protecting our kids."

The Mitchell Report addressed performance-enhancers at the high school level, saying anabolic steroids appeared to be on the decline but were still used by "hundreds of thousands" of teens. According to a 2005 survey conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, 4% of high school students had reported using illegal steroids at least once without a doctor's prescription.