In last Saturday’s Albuquerque Journal, I read this (subscription):
The New Mexico Activities Association and Gov. Bill Richardson’s office have teamed up in recent months to study the legalities and costs of steroid testing in high schools.
Their joint task force has found it to be a complex, costly issue strewn with legal land mines. But Gary Tripp, executive director of the New Mexico Activities Association, and Dennis Latta of the New Mexico Sports Authority remain confident prep steroid testing will happen.
“I believe there will be testing in the next few years,” Tripp said. “Now that it’s national news, the scope of the problem is just starting to surface.”
“There are a lot of legal snags and privacy issues when you’re talking about testing someone under 18, but it’s really a matter of passing the appropriate laws.”
Latta agreed.
“We’ve got a lot of things to work out, and it’s going to take time,” he said. “But the governor badly wants this, and I think it will happen.”
The rationale behind this:
“Steroid use is difficult to recognize,” Tripp said, “but national surveys say 5 to 6 percent of high school athletes use them.
Well, double this estimate, nearly one in ten 12th graders, use illicit drugs on a monthly basis. So, if schools start this practice of random drug testing of athletes, expect the next step to be drug testing for all students. Yet, another example of the state trying to parent our children.