By ROBERT EILEK - For the Californian (from the San Diego North County Times)

The recent spate of drug-related suspensions involving U.S. track and field champions Kelli White, Regina Jacobs, Calvin Harrison, Kevin Toth, and the current grand jury investigation into possible tax and drug violations by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative that supplies high-profile athletes, including Barry Bonds, with suspect nutritional substances serve to illustrate the alarming escalation of performance-enhancing drugs in sports.

It is an escalation that threatens not only the integrity of sports competition, but erodes the values we embrace as a nation and presents a serious health risk to our youth.

Athletes are influential role models for our youth whether they choose to accept that characterization or not, and through their lead, America's young adopt many values. The learn to practice hard, play hard in game sand on the job. They learn to balance sports with academics and doing daily chores. They learn how to compete, how to win fairly and they learn that cheating is wrong, that it destroys character.

Unfortunately, we see a growing number of athletes and other influential adult figures modeling cheating in order to win at any cost. The incident at Paloma Valley High School where staff have been accused of illegally changing grades to allow ineligible athletes to compete is one such example.

Other cheaters include those athletes who seek to artificially boost their performance by ingesting a smorgasbord of performance-enhancing drugs including anabolic steroids, ephedra, EPO, amphetamines human growth hormone, modafinil, diuretics, androstendione, creatine, THG, and a host of other "juices" altered by pseudochemists to avoid detection.

Taking drugs, whether an anabolic steroid or something as seemingly harmless as creatine to gain an advantage, is still cheating. Although cheaters may set records and win championships, they are not winners and should not be emulated by our children.

Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, once famously remarked that "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." This maxim has been distorted over the years and now many athletes, their coaches and even owners subscribe to a win-at-all-costs attitude. This attitude has led to an acceptance that cheating is justified as long as it leads to victory and brings in money. We see the same mentality in the business world. Just look at the rash of CEOs caught stealing millions of dollars and wiping out employee retirement funds. Cheaters hurt all of society, whether they are athletes, CEOs, or just average citizens.

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association's Healthy Competition National Survey on Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Sports (2001) revealed some disturbing results:

+390,000 10- to 14-year-olds have taken performance-enhancing substances. A similar survey conducted by Blue Cross and Blue Shield in 1999 showed no respondent under 14 years of age had consumed these substances. Thus, it appears that people are taking performance-enhancing drugs at an increasingly younger age.

+72 percent of youth respondents stated that they had received no information about performance-enhancing substances from their sports teams.

+70 percent of youth respondents could not identify any serious side effects that may develop from using these substances.

+74 percent of parent respondents feel that performance-enhancing drugs are a public health problem.

+37 percent of parent respondents rated the use of performance-enhancing drugs as their greatest concern in youth sports; a distant second was aggressive behavior at 19 percent.

+54 percent of parent respondents feel that not enough is being done to stop the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

How do we begin to stem the rising tide of performance-enhancing drug use among our youth? A concerted effort by state and federal authorities and our schools to provide a comprehensive education program to address the dangers and pitfalls of this type of drug use is urgently needed.

The introduction of a bill in Congress by Sens. Joe Biden, D-Del, and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, that would make THG, the current steroid of choice among several athletes, illegal under the federal Controlled Substances Act is a step in the right direction.

We need a transition to clean sports and this can only begin when the various governing bodies in athletics adopt a tough, zero-tolerance policy toward athletes, coaches, personal trainers and others who use or encourage the use of such substances.

Additionally, it will take more positive role models like Olympic champions Michael Johnson and Daley Thompson ---- whose successes came as a result of dedication, sacrifice and hard work ---- to have the courage to stand up and speak out against the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports. Ultimately, it is the future of our youth and our nation that is at risk if we do not weed out the cheaters. Doing so will result in a better world.

Robert Eilek of Temecula is a teacher at Temecula Middle School.