STUDY: RANDOM DRUG TESTING IS EFFECTIVE

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Student-athletes subject to random drug testing at an
Oregon high school were almost four times less likely to use drugs than
their counterparts at a similar school who were not tested, a study shows.

The one-year pilot study by researchers at Oregon Health & Sciences
University compared Wahtonka High School in The Dalles, where all
student-athletes were subject to random testing, and Warrenton High School,
a demographically similar school near Astoria, where they were not.

Of the 135 athletes subject to the random testing at Wahtonka, only 5.3
percent said they were using illicit drugs by the end of the school year,
versus 19.4 percent of the 141 athletes at Warrenton.

They also were three times less likely to use performance-enhancing
substances like steroids, according to the survey responses, which were
confidential.

The study, conducted during the 1999-2000 school year, was funded by the
National Institute on Drug Abuse, an arm of the National Institutes of
Health. The results are published in next month's Journal of Adolescent Health.

"The differences between the schools were dramatic," said Dr. Linn
Goldberg, a lead researcher in the study. "And the differences between the
non-athletes (who were not tested at either school but who filled out
questionnaires about drug use) were not significantly there" - 32.2 percent
at Warrenton and 26.6 percent at Wahtonka.

The study comes six months after the issue was thrown into the spotlight by
the U.S. Supreme Court. In June, the court ruled that children attending
public schools can be required to participate in drug testing if they join
any competitive after-school activity, from football to chess.

Merry Holland, principal at Wahtonka, said the school has continued to test
athletes since the study ended.

She said she believes the program has helped curb drug use. But, she said,
the drug testing has also led some students to switch to substances that
are more difficult to track, like beer.

"There are a lot of parties with alcohol," she said. "If they want to stay
with sports, and participate, they might switch to something they think is
harder to detect."

Over the past few years, about 5 percent of schools nationwide have
required that athletes be drug tested. About two percent have tested
students in other activities.

The Oregon pilot study is the forerunner of a wider, three-year study at 13
Oregon high schools.

Dubbed SATURN, for Student Athlete Testing Using Random Notification, the
wider study is meant to examine whether the threat of testing really keeps
kids away from drugs. It was suspended in its third year after a federal
agency expressed concerns about some of the methodology used in the study's
latter two years.

The Office of Human Research Policy said the study violated a number of
federal regulations by not properly obtaining informed consent from
children or protecting research subjects from coercive environments. The
survey results used in the published study were not affected.

OHSU issued a response this month offering to better ensure student
confidentiality, to stop using principals and coaches to solicit
participation in some schools and to end financial incentives for
participating schools. Goldberg said researchers are awaiting word on
whether the study will be reinstated.