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Smith column: Young people steering clear of steroids

By Marcia C. Smith

December 12th, 2007

America's kids have known what's going on. They have spent much of 2007 watching the sports world's doping dragnet catch cheaters, big and small.

They've witnessed American sports' kings and queens squirming beneath suspicions of anabolic steroids use and facing federal perjury charges for covering up their syringe-stuck success.

They've seen stars getting booed and humiliated and stripped of Olympic medals, a Tour de France leader's yellow jersey, a home-run record's untainted glory and their reputations as "clean" sportsmen.

When about 50 former and active players are expected to be revealed today in George J. Mitchell's report on performance-enhancing drug use in major-league baseball, America's youth will get more characters to add their already well cast cautionary tale about drug-cheating in sports.

There will be more names. More heroes to fall. More achievements to question. More shame on sports.

But there will also be more lessons for today's children — and tomorrow's professional athletes — to learn about fair, drug-free play.

The government's gold standard of youth drug-use studies, the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future study, shows that the years of doping crackdowns in major sports and heightened efforts for anti-drug education have had positive effects.

The nationwide survey of 48,025 students — not just athletes — revealed a continued pattern of marked decline in youth steroids use and unwavering disapproval of these performance-enhancing muscle builders.

Steroids never have been frequently used drugs among middle- and high schoolers. Their rate of usage, which hasn't crested far beyond 3 percent, ranks steroids higher than that of PCP and heroin but about half that of OxyContin and Vicodin.

Their epidemic status of steroids is non-existent compared with the 25-65 percent of surveyed students who have admitted to trying alcohol, inhalants, cigarettes or marijuana.

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Florida to start steroids testing in high school

Lynne Sladky / AP file
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist throws a football after signing a bill mandating that all elementary school students must have at least a half-hour of daily physical education at the Miami Dolphins training camp in Davie, Fla. on May 17. Crist played quarterback on his high school football team.

Athletes who refuse to give urine samples would be kicked off their teams

Updated: 3:51 p.m. ET June 19, 2007

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida high school athletes participating in football, baseball and weightlifting will be subject to random steroid testing under a one-year pilot program Gov. Charlie Crist signed Tuesday.

The Florida High School Athletics Association will supervise the testing. Its membership includes 426 public schools and 224 private schools -- all subject to the law that takes effect July 1.

"I am hopeful that through this legislation we will limit the number of high school students struggling with steroid use," Crist said. "It's our responsibility to teach our children the serious health risks that may be involved. We can help prevent serious health problems and drug abuse later on."

Supreme Court upholds limits on high school recruiting

The justices rule unanimously that coaches' recruitment efforts aren't protected as free speech.
By David G. Savage and Eric Sondheimer
Times Staff Writers

WASHINGTON - High schools with big-time sports ambitions were dealt a setback Thursday when the Supreme Court upheld a rule that forbids coaches from recruiting young athletes.

In a 9-0 decision, the justices said the 1st Amendment's guarantee of free speech does not shield coaches who ignore the rules of fair competition by contacting students and encouraging them to enroll in their school.