Texas will re-evaluate steroid testing

AUSTIN - Florida's governing body for high school sports has announced it will eliminate the state's steroid-testing program.  State officials said they could not justify spending $100,000 on the program in a slow economy.  Only one positive result was found out of 600 student-athletes tested in its first year.

The Texas legislature is facing a similar decision.  The University Interscholastic League (UIL), which governs the state's high school sports, is in the second year of a two-year, $6-million program.  The program is considered the largest in the world but returned only two steroid users among 10,000 student-athletes tested in its first year.

"The Center for Drug-Free Sport conducted 29,000 samples over this past year, and it's one of the most amazing things I've seen that so few positive tests have been returned," said UIL executive director Dr. Charles Breithaupt.  "We will continue to test through the spring semester and then the legislature will have to determine if they want to continue the program, but so far it's been most successful."

Dr. Breithaupt credits the low number of positive tests for its success.  Student-athletes are selected randomly across all high school sports.  The state legislature could decide to keep the program in place, amend it, or eliminate it.