DRUG TESTING COMES AT A COST

Drug testing: Good.

Paying for it: Bad.

Good or bad, Florida's high schools may have to deal with the issue this summer.  The state Legislature is debating a law that would require random testing of high school athletes for drugs, including steroids.  The law could be implemented as early as July 1.

The debate was spawned by a survey of 50,000 teenagers done by the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.  The survey showed an increase of 66.7 percent in steroid use by high school sophomores and seniors between 1991 and 2003.

The survey showed that one out of nine high school boys in Louisiana and one out of 19 high school girls in Tennessee were using steroids.  The survey did not include androstenedione ( andro ), an over-the-counter substance used by Mark McGwire when he hit 70 home runs in 1998.

The publicity generated by McGwire and Barry Bonds, who is suspected of using a steroid during his 73-home run season, touched off a controversy that reached Congress.  Now it has filtered down to the state level.

"[Random drug testing] would be a good thing," said John I.  Leonard Athletic Director Peter Soderblom.  "You don't want kids using drugs.  But the question is, who is going to pay for it?"

In Palm Beach County, that's more than a rhetorical question.  The county's school system already is facing a serious problem, with a potential budget deficit of $33 million.

Piling an expensive new drug-testing program on top of an existing budget deficit probably would require substantial tax increases.