Readers back steroid testing for cops and high school athletes

The results of this week's reader poll surprised me. After reviewing a book by a former Texas police officer and sheriff's deputy who told the story of his on the job steroid abuse, and comparing the problem to the plan to test all Texas high school athletes for steroids, I asked: "Do you support steroid testing for high school athletes, police, neither, or both." Nearly 200 readers responded to the survey.

Hardly anyone agreed with Texas' current policy, which is to test ONLY high school athletes but NOT police officers - 14% of respondents thought that was a good idea. Only 19% supported testing police but not high school athletes. Twenty eight percent said neither should be tested, while a whopping 45%, a significant plurality, said both should be tested.

Combined, 64% of readers thought police should be tested, and 59% thought high school athletes should be tested for steroids. I wouldn't have guessed that outcome.

On this score, I find myself in disagreement with most of my readers. I support testing police but don't think mass steroid testing of athletes is a good idea at all. It'd be incredibly expensive (we've got a LOT of high school athletes in Texas), and there's little evidence this is a widespread problem among teenagers. At a minimum it makes more sense to begin testing in response to allegations only rather than testing every football, basketball and volleyball player in the state.

If it weren't for the fact that it exposes them to participation in the black market that can lead to corruption, I wouldn't mind tolerating steroid use among police, either, though I don't particularly think it's necessary. My gut instinct on this is to go with the 28% who wouldn't test either group. Since steroid use does cause exposure to the black market, though, I think police officers should be tested so long as steroids are illegal as an anti-corruption measure.

In general, I tend to agree with Robert Wallach at LewRockwell.com who argues (somewhat more enthusiastically than I would) that those who want to become human guinea pigs for steroid use should be allowed to do so, particularly adults. And I'd feel exactly the same way about police using steroids if they could acquire them without engaging in transactions with people operating outside the law.

In the book I reviewed last week by the former Harris County Sheriff's Deputy, the author once asked his steroid dealer why he agreed to sell to a cop. The answer: "I knew you had more to lose than I did." That leaves officers open to coercion, blackmail, or at a minimum wrongly divided loyalties. At the end of the day I fear that scenario a lot more than I do someone's voluntary decision to experiment with steroid use.