80th Legislature: Mandatory Steroid Testing

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Texas is a hotbed of high school football, where the Friday night lights burn brighter and many of the athletes are among the biggest, fastest and strongest in the country.

A key state leader is pushing to make Texas kids the cleanest athletes as well.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, a Republican, is proposing a sweeping mandatory random testing program in public schools for steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.

I’ve always been against mandatory drug testing of any kind in schools, and I don’t think steroid testing is going to do much to curb the use of seriods since they can be masked, cleansed from the system and used selectively and are (in some instances) tacitly encouraged by coaches even though they are dangerous.

But, in light of my earlier post on “no pass, no play,” perhaps the Lege should focus on fixing one athletics-related problem at a time.