Texas poised to adopt school steroid testing

HOUSTON -- Texas is poised to become the first state to test high school athletes randomly for steroids, the most dramatic step yet in a nationwide backlash against the dangerous muscle-building drugs that have infested locker rooms across America.

The Texas Senate earlier this month approved a measure to test 3 percent of the state's 740,000 high school athletes, or about 22,000 boys and girls, for steroids every year. The Texas House of Representatives approved a similar measure, which would have an athletic association pay for the testing .

Governor Rick Perry of Texas has not taken an official position on the legislation. But lawmakers expect him to sign the final bill, which would make Texas the first state in the country to make all of its high school athletes eligible for random steroid testing. New Jersey passed a steroid testing law last year, but it applies only to high school athletes who reach playoff competitions.

California, Illinois, Florida, and New Mexico also have been debating steroid testing for student athletes, as health officials and parents' groups increasingly voice fears that boys and girls are sacrificing their health for glories on the playing field.

Anti steroid activists, who have been clamoring for testing for years, believe momentum is building nationally. But there are lingering concerns about costs, and about violating the privacy of thousands of boys and girls to catch a relative few. A California lawmaker's proposal to test about 20,000 high school athletes a year randomly was rejected last week in a state Assembly committee amid opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union and the California Teachers Association.

In Texas, Don Hooton of Plano described the legislative action as a giant step forward. "Our hope is that this Texas legislation will be the first of a wave that will cross the other 49 states," said Hooton, who began campaigning for tougher steroid laws after the death of his 17-year-old son, Taylor.

The teenager hanged himself in 2003 after using steroids and sinking into a depression.

Taylor Hooton 's baseball coaches had told him he needed to bulk up if he wanted to pitch for the varsity team; he confessed to taking steroids after he suddenly gained 30 pounds of muscle, but said he had stopped -- although the drugs were found in his system after his death. The Hootons later found Mexican steroids in their son's bedroom .

"As we learned with Rafael Palmeiro, just asking people whether they're using steroids simply isn't going to cut it," Don Hooton said, referring to the pro fessional baseball player who told a congressional panel, "I have never used steroids," only to fail a test for them fewer than five months later.

Specialists say it is difficult to estimate how many student athletes are taking steroids because users often conceal their habit even from their closest friends.

But some specialists believe that 750,000 or more youngsters nationwide will use the drugs before graduating from high school.

Monitoring the Future, a University of Michigan survey that has been tracking drug use among seniors since 1975, found last year that 2.7 percent had used steroids.