Addressing Steroids

The use of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing supplements by professional athletes has prompted legislators and other policy makers to address their use among adolescents. While New Jersey grabbed the national spotlight by becoming the first state to implement a program for random steroid testing of athletes competing in state playoffs, experts warn against this rush to testing. Steroids testing programs are costly, unproven and fail to step up to the more difficult challenge of addressing students' motivations to use, such as the win-at-all-costs mentality pervading high school athletics.

Testing does not Adequately Address the Problem

As with other forms of drug testing, programs targeting steroids have not proven to be an effective means of reducing use. Most steroid tests do not detect other performance enhancing supplements, and the more substances that are added to a test, the higher the cost. Also, testing does not reach all of those adolescents who are using steroids, as more than one third of adolescent users do not participate in school sports. For those who do participate in sports, testing is a poor substitute for inculcating the value for fair play.

Testing Is Prohibitively Expensive

The average test ranges from $100-$200 per test. During the first year the New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association is expected to spend $100,000 to test .002 percent of the state’s high school athletes for performance enhancing substances, while no state funds are directed towards steroids education. As Robert F. Kanaby, the Executive Director of the National Federation of State High School Associations observes, “We must recognize that in an era of scarce resources, steroid testing is way down on [the] budgetary pecking order for most school districts. This is particularly true if there is another good way to address the problem, and there is.”

The Need for Positive Interventions

The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement emphasizing the need to develop positive interventions rather than relying on punitive measures to influence adolescent decisions regarding performance-enhancing substances, warning that testing does not provide the “framework or guidelines for resolving the conflict between the drive to win and the imperative to do the right thing.” Education programs equip students with improved sport nutrition skills, a greater ability to refuse an offer of steroids, and less desire to engage in future use of steroids. Two effective and proven programs are Athletes Training and Learning Avoid Steroids (ATLAS) and Athletes Targeting Healthy Exercise and Nutrition Alternatives (ATHENA).

Another approach schools should consider is increased or mandatory coach education about steroids and other performance enhancing supplements. Coaches should neither offer nor encourage the use of any substance which has negative or undetermined effects on adolescent health. Coaches should be the focus of administrative disciplinary actions and be held responsible for sustaining an environment that promotes individual health and the value of fair play. Maine launched the Sports Done Right initiative that seeks to change the culture of competitiveness for high school athletics student athletes that can fuel unhealthy behaviors such as steroid use or eating disorders.

Steroids Testing Resources

American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement: Use of Performance-Enhancing Substances

American Academy of Pediatrics: Sports Shorts: Performance-Enhancing Substances

Oregon Health & Science University ATLAS & ATHENA Education Programs

Safety First Drug Facts: Steroids

Sports Done Right: A Call to Action on Behalf of Maine's Student Athletes