Pubdate: Mon, 08 May 2006
Source: New Jersey Herald (NJ)
Copyright: 2006, Quincy Newspapers, Inc
Contact:  http://www.njherald.com/news/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2162
Author: Stefan Bondy, Assistant Sports Editor
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)

Commentary:

NJSIAA MAKING A MISTAKE BY TESTING

Needless spending seems to be the forte of the New Jersey  
Interscholastic Athletic Association.

The non-profit organization that was exposed last year for its  
exorbitant salaries and outlandish job perks is  now America's first  
to implement mandatory drug testing  of high school athletes for  
performance enhancing  drugs.

The cost of this venture, which received preliminary  approval  
Wednesday by the NJSIAA executive committee,  is $50,000 from the  
state and $50,000 from the NJSIAA.

The plan will go into effect next fall pending final  approval on  
June 7. NJSIAA president Steve Timko said  he will use more funds if  
needed.

Ironically, this is the same NJSIAA that complained  last month about  
its financial trouble and,  consequentially, proposed last week to  
raise school  fees.

"We are going to be down $900,000 by the end of this  year," Mike  
Herbert, the association's attorney, told the Bergen Record.

So they decided to spend more.

To examine urine.

"The money is a concern but this is an important  issue," NJSIAA  
assistant director Bob Baly said. "It's  for health and safety  
reasons and evening the playing  field."

Thank you Mr. Baly and the NJSIAA, you saved the day.

This makes less sense than cheering for a true suspect,  Barry Bonds,  
and his shape-shifting body.

Steroid use falls far down on the list of preferred  high school  
drugs. Alcohol and marijuana, both stimulants that can curtail a GPA  
and a future, would win a popularity contest in a landslide.

According to a 2004 study by the Department of Justice, 70 percent of  
high school seniors drank alcohol, 34  percent smoked marijuana and  
only 2.5 percent did steroids.

But ignoring facts and figures, the state of New Jersey and the  
NJSIAA decided to set a precedent by singling  out athletes, testing  
them for performance enhancing  drugs.

If they were truly going to curtail drug use, they would require  
schools to adopt the program now enforced  in Hackettstown.

The Warren county school randomly tests any kid participating in  
athletics, school clubs or on-campus  parking for "all the common  
drugs of choice in this  area," said Hackettstown principal Christine  
Steffner.

About 75 percent of the students are eligible to be  tested, and the  
procedure is effectively working as a deterrent. The school tested 70  
kids last school year  with one positive.

This year, 150 with no positives.

"We're very happy with it," Steffner said. "The kids  are telling us  
that it makes a difference at parties,  that it's easier to say no."

Such an imposition is not the best solution, but it is better than  
the half-hearted attempt by state  government and the NJSIAA. Their  
plan has more holes  than a salt shaker.

First, they are only testing athletes competing in state championship  
events.

That sends this message: If you or your team stinks, it's okay to do  
steroids to get better. But once the steroids have lifted you to  
playoff status, you have to  get off them. There is also a message in  
this selection  process: Steroids must work, because the NJSIAA is  
only  concerned with the most accomplished athletes.

Second, they are banning 80 performance enhancing substances,  
including amphetamines and masking agents, which will inevitably lead  
them into the murky world of  cough syrups and asthma medications. If  
an athlete is on one of these drugs without pre-approval, he or she  
may be burdened by a bureaucratic, appeal process.  Remember the  
Winter Olympics?  A skeleton racer with a receding hairline (Zach  
Lund) was suspended for applying a drug that would grow his hair.

Third, the suspension is way too harsh -- a year of  ineligibility or  
three high school seasons. By  comparison, Major League Baseball  
suspends its players 50 games, or less than two months, for a first  
offense.

These are teenage high school kids, not millionaire ballplayers. The  
idea should be rehabilitation, not punishment.

Fourth, if an athlete is fanatic enough to take steroids, he will be  
conscientious enough to beat a  test. Steroids or performing  
enhancing drugs are  different from recreational drugs because they  
are not physically addicting. Athletes often take them  meticulously,  
knowing exactly how long they will stay  in their system, what kind  
of test is out there, and  when to stop, start or keep going. State  
playoffs don't last very long, and neither do the detection times of  
some steroids.

So there isn't much positive about this program. Its ideology is  
wrong, its enforcement is flawed and it  costs a great deal of  
taxpayer money. But this is the  way of the NJSIAA, and every high  
school athlete is a  slave to its wrongheaded policy.

If you win too many games now, you are a prime target for a  
humiliating test.

Suddenly, losing never looked so good.
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MAP posted-by: Jackl