Student-Athletes in New Jersey to Face Testing for Steroids

New Jersey this fall will begin testing some of its high school athletes for steroids, making it the first state to institute such a program for athletes statewide.

Though individual schools around the country have conducted steroid tests on their students, New Jersey’s plan, approved unanimously June 7 by the New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association, will open up a much larger pool of athletes to random testing. Students must consent to the drug testing to participate in athletics.

Eligible for the testing will be the approximately 10,000 public and private school students who make it to postseason play in New Jersey. Most of the money set aside for testing—60 percent—will be focused on athletes in sports where steroid and performance-enhancing drug abuse is believed to be more common: football, wrestling, track, swimming, baseball, and lacrosse. Forty percent will be spent testing...