Teen Steroid Use on High School Teams

Teen steroid abuse is a dangerous trend that high school coaches may be able to offer solutions for. Known as "roids," "juice," "hype," or "pump," anabolic steroids are man-made substances that act like the male sex hormone testosterone ("Teens and Steroids"). Although steroids are only available legally by a doctor's prescription to treat certain conditions, they are available on the black market and are taken by some teens to "enhance performance and also to improve physical appearance" ("Teens and Steroids"). Teens that take steroids may exhibit a variety of signs and symptoms, such as rapid weight and muscle gain, "aggressiveness and combativeness," jaundice, purple spots, swollen feet and legs, trembling, skin darkening, bad breath, and severe acne ("Teens and Steroids"). More than 70 side effects can occur due to steroid use, including liver cancer, psychological effects such as "roid rage," and depression ("Teens and Steroids"). Males can have "reduced sperm production, shrinking of the testicles, impotence, difficulty or pain in urinating, baldness, and irreversible breast enlargement" ("Teens and Steroids"). Girls can develop masculine characteristics such as lower body fat and breast size, a deeper voice, excess body hair, loss of scalp hair, and clitoral enlargement ("Teens and Steroids"). Teens of both sexes can stop growing and remain shorter for the rest of their lives than they would have been if they had not taken steroids ("Teens and Steroids").

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and athletes caught using them can lose a promising sports career (Dowshen). In 2004, President Bush promised $23 million for teen steroid drug testing (Harris 36). However, these measures are not sufficient in themselves to curb teen steroid use. With respect to the drug testing, for example, the National Federation of State High School Associations reported that only 13% of high schools administer drug tests to athletes, and only 29% of those were testing specifically for anabolic steroids (Harris 36). Some rural high schools have ended their sports programs altogether in an effort to stop teen steroid use (Popke). It has also been suggested that school nurses could play a role in detecting steroid use, since they see students suffering the effects of the drugs (Popke). Hall of Famer Dick Butkus and his son Matthew founded an organization called "I Play Clean," which "seeks to educate students, parents and school administrators about the dangers of teen steroid use" (Russo). The National Institute on Drug Abuse "has launched a multimedia education campaign to publicize the dangers of these drugs" ("Teen Steroid Abuse Rises" 50). The initiative includes a web site-http://www.steroidabuse.org-and the distribution of such

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