THIS SPORTING LIFE

In the mad competitive struggle that is capitalism, the use of steroids by athletes has become commonplace, but what is not so well known is their use by school kids."Probably next week, but certainly before Christmas, the state of Texas will become the first to implement mandatory drug testing for high-school students." (Times, 1 December) This legislation is being introduced partly because of the suicide of Taylor Hooton, a 17 year old baseball pitcher at a Texas high school, but also because of a series of surveys that suggested that 2 - 6 per cent of high school take steroids. RD