Pubdate: Mon, 20 Nov 2006
Source: Statesman Journal (Salem, OR)
Copyright: 2006 Statesman Journal
Contact:  http://www.statesmanjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/427
Author: Alan Gustafson, Statesman Journal

SOME QUESTION THE EFFECTIVENESS OF NEW JERSEY'S TESTING
MODE

This fall, New Jersey became the first state to launch a statewide 
steroid-testing program for high school athletes.

The program calls for random testing of athletes who qualify for team 
or individual state tournaments. Each test will cost $150 to $200; 
the New Jersey high school association and the state each will give 
$50,000 to cover the bill.

Those who test positive will be penalized with a one-year loss of eligibility.

Frank Uryasz, the president of the National Center for Drug Free 
Sport, a Kansas City, Mo., company hired to administer New Jersey's 
testing program, said it could become a model for other states.

"A number of states have told us that they're just waiting to see 
what happens in New Jersey, so it wouldn't surprise me if in 2007 or 
2008 we saw more testing conducted by state high school associations," he said.

Uryasz identified Florida and Illinois as leading candidates; 
newspaper reports indicate that New York and Texas also are 
considering the idea.

In Oregon, a nationally renowned steroids expert told the Statesman 
Journal that New Jersey's program is severely flawed and "a 
monumental waste of resources."

"That is the most ridiculous program on the planet," said Dr. Linn 
Goldberg, a professor of medicine at Oregon Health & Science University.

Because New Jersey's policy limits testing to postseason tournaments, 
athletes can easily evade detection by using steroids in planned 
cycles before and after the playoffs, Goldberg said.

"How is that a deterrent?" he asked. "It isn't, not by any stretch of 
the imagination. If drug testing is going to work, it's got to be 
random, it's got to be unannounced, and it's got to be at any time."

Tom Welter, the executive director of the Oregon School Activities 
Association, representing about 290 schools throughout the state, has 
doubts about instituting a New Jersey-like program here.

"Not that random drug testing is necessarily bad, but it's terribly, 
terribly expensive, and I question its long-term positive effects," he said.

"What's being accomplished if an athlete stays off chemical use 
during the football season, then turns right around and goes on a 
binge during the winter and spring because he's not playing anything? 
Have we really taught that athlete anything?

Uryasz, whose firm also administers drug testing for the National 
Collegiate Athletic Association, sees New Jersey's postseason testing 
program as a good first step.

"I expect them to go with testing at the championships first and get 
their feet wet," he said. "Then I think they'll expand testing to 
year-round. This is what the NCAA did. They started testing at 
championships in 1986 and then went to a year-round program starting in 1990."

For years, however, the NCAA did not test athletes during the summer, 
leaving a big loophole in its so-called year-round testing program. 
Random testing of college athletes was extended into the summer 
months for the first time this year.

"That was important," Uryasz said. "When you're talking about 
year-round deterrence, you have to test year-round."

New Jersey's acting governor, Richard Codey, also formerly a youth 
basketball coach, ordered that state's high school testing program 
last December, citing the need to clamp down on illegal 
performance-enhancing drugs.

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 
about 5 percent of U.S. high school students took steroids in 2005 
without a doctor's prescription.

The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association projects 
that about 500 athletes -- about 5 percent of the 10,000 athletes who 
participate in tournaments each year -- will be tested this school year.

Sixty percent of the tests will occur in sports that the association 
deems most susceptible to steroid use, such as football, track and 
field, wrestling, baseball, lacrosse and swimming.

Urine samples will be analyzed by the UCLA Olympic Analytical 
Laboratory in Los Angeles, the only lab in the nation accredited by 
the World Anti-Doping Agency to perform steroid testing.

New Jersey's testing program is far less rigorous than the NCAA's 
year-round random drug-testing program, also administered by the 
Center for Drug Free Sport.

Uryasz set up the NCAA testing program in 1986 after UCLA researchers 
found a way to detect steroids, and he guided the program for 13 
years. In 1999, he established Drug Free Sport as the nation's first 
privately owned sports drug-testing company.

Currently, about 12,000 NCAA athletes are tested each year. The NCAA 
tests for steroids, stimulants and masking agents as part of its 
regular program, adding illegal drugs such as cocaine and marijuana 
in championship play.

Uryasz and his staff oversee a network of field crews who collect 
urine samples from college athletes across the country. The samples 
are tested at two labs -- the UCLA lab for steroids, a Kansas lab for 
illegal street drugs.

The NCAA spends about $4 million per year on its testing program, 
plus $500,000 a year for athlete education.

Uryasz thinks that testing is a strong deterrent, and he points to 
the NCAA testing program as proof.

Prior to year-round testing, a 1989 survey of college football 
players found that about 10 percent -- 1 in 10 -- admitted to using 
steroids, Uryasz said.

"Now that number is about 1 percent, about one of every 100," he 
said. "So they've made considerable progress in deterring the use of 
steroids, and I think it's because of the year-round testing program."
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MAP posted-by: Elaine