By Pat Stacey
The State of Texas is in an 18-billion dollar budget crunch and you would think that those controlling the state's purse strings would be in the mood to cut some erroneous spending. But that does not seem to be the case. Over the past 3 years, the state has conducted random steroid testing on high school athletes. Well, guess what. With more than 50-thousand tests conducted, less than 30 students have tested positive for steroids. That is point zero, zero, zero 6 percent of those tested, that tested positive. Now, proponents say that despite the small number of positive results, the threat of tests are a deterrent to high school athletes using steroids. But really this was the largest and most costly steroid testing program in the history of high school sports and it is time to cut it loose. Now principals should still have the ability to conduct a test of their students and let that be the deterrent. Otherwise, the state needs to punt this program and save the millions of dollars earmarked for it. It won't solve all our budget woes but state lawmakers need to start somewhere and it will help lean up the state and make for a Better East Texas.
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2013 WorldNow and KLTV, a Raycom Media Station.
