By April Henning, National Development and Research Institutes
The Miami-Dade County Public School administration recently announced plans to begin testing student-athletes for performance enhancing substances (PES) (Pannoni 2014). The school system, located in southern Florida, is the fourth largest in the United States with 340,000 students. Citing “safety” concerns for young athletes in the wake of the Biogenesis scandal, in which federal charges have been brought against associates of the Miami-based clinic for distributing steroids to athletes—including high schoolers—the pilot testing program for PES is unique in the U.S. (CBSMiami 2014).
Just weeks before this decision was announced, the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, a non-profit adolescent substance abuse organization, released the findings of a “nationally projectable” annual survey of substance use by American high school students in grades 9-12 (PFDFK 2014). The Partnership Attitude Tracking Survey (PATS) found that students’ reports of using either steroids or synthetic human growth hormone (hGH) at least once in their lifetime have both increased at statistically significant levels: steroid use increased from 5% in 2012 to 7% in 2013; reported hGH use more than doubled from 5% to11% over the same time (Ibid, p.21)
Given these findings it would seem that adding testing of student athletes in the fourth largest school district in the U.S. would work to stymie this growing trend and protect young athletes from potentially harmful effects of PES. The Miami-Dade program expands the current surveillance model of international anti-doping to high schools. The program may work to detect some users of PES as it has at the elite and professional levels of sport, and it may even work to deter some from using steroids or hHG.
However, the PATS data also reveal “there is no statistically significant difference in the athletic involvement between synthetic hGH users and non-users” (PFDFK 2014, 23). Despite being just as likely to use hGH as athletes, non-athletes will not be tested, diminishing any deterrence effect from the threat of testing and sanction.
Many students are using these substances for reasons other than sports performance. While PFDFK offered theories to explain non-sporting use (e.g. aesthetics, weight loss, increased availability of nutritional supplements) found in the PATS, the reasons for why young men and women would choose PES are yet unclear. What is clear is that any potential harms of steroids, hGH, or other PES use are the same regardless if one is an athlete or not. Yet, PES are still generally regarded as a sport problem.
This scenario is emblematic of a wider problem of PES use that extends beyond sport. News reports and academic research have acknowledged that PES use is not limited to the sporting context, but that it occurs among non-athlete groups including police officers, firefighters, military personnel (Fogel 2012; Hoberman 2005). Even members of the World Health Organization have determined that doping has shifted from a sports issue to a public health problem (O’Connor 2012).
Rather than focusing on strategic partnerships with non-sporting actors to address PES on a broader public scale, the issue continues to be addressed almost exclusively within the sporting context and even then with a heavy focus on detection and punishment to the neglect of use prevention or harm reduction. While expanding testing may lead to more compliance with anti-doping rules, an approach focused on more than compliance is necessary (Backhouse 2013), especially when considering PES use that falls outside the purview of sports governance and anti-doping. Yet, while the announcement of the program included details for costs of testing and the projected number of student athletes to be tested, it made no mention of PES use prevention or education programs.
The school administration correctly identifies student safety as a high priority. In pursuit of that objective, the safety of all students should be central to their strategy. This will require a rethinking of the most effective ways to reach an expanded audience with varying motivations for PES use and the willingness to include programs focused on topics such as media literacy and risk reduction strategies. The Miami-Dade and other school districts should not miss the opportunity to educate students—athletes and non—about the risks of using substances including hGH, steroids, and other legal and non-legal substances.
Backhouse, Susan. 2013. “The Compliance Factor: Limiting the Anti-Doping Agenda?” INHDR Newsletter, June (http://ph.au.dk/en/about-the-department-of-public-health/sections/sektion-for-idraet/forskning/forskningsenheden-sport-og-kropskultur/international-network-of-humanistic-doping-research/newsletters/june-2013/inhdr-commentary-susan-backhouse/).
CBSMiami. 2014. “Miami-Dade Public Schools Announces Program for Random Drug Testing,” CBS Miami, August 5 (http://miami.cbslocal.com/2014/08/05/miami-dade-public-schools-announces-program-for-random-drug-testing/).
Fogel, Curtis A. 2012. “Vocational Steroid Use: Reconsidering the Effectiveness of a Prohibition Approach.” Kultūra ir visuomenė 3(1): 25-36.
Hoberman, John. 2005. “Dopers in Uniform: Cops on Steroids,” Mesomorphosis, May 22 (http://www.mesomorphosis.com/articles/hoberman/cops-on-steroids.htm).
O’Connor, Philip. 2012. “Doping is Now A Public Health Issue, Conference Told,” Reuters, September 22 (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/22/us-doping-health-idUSBRE88L06E20120922).
Pannoni, Alexandra. 2014. “Doping Rises Among High Schoolers, but Few Districts Test,” U.S. News and World Report, August 11 (http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/high-school-notes/2014/08/11/testing-high-school-athletes-for-doping-uncommon).
Partnership for Drug-Free Kids (PFDFK). 2014. The Partnership Attitude Tracking Survey: Teens & Parents 2013 (Report available at: http://www.drugfree.org/newsroom/pats-2013-teens-report-higher-use-of-performance-enhancing-substances).