LEGISLATURE MIGHT STUDY STUDENT DRUG USE

Drug use by school athletes and other students involved in middle and
senior high school activities -- and potential random testing of those
students -- could be the focus of a legislative study later this year.

Members of the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission
have agreed to participate in such a study. They did so after state
Sen. Clark Barnes, R-Randolph, introduced legislation to randomly test
high school athletes in state championship rounds for
performance-enhancing drugs.

"The more of us that work together on this, the better solution we're
going to come up with," said Mike Hayden, executive director of the
SSAC.

Barnes based his original proposal on a New Jersey law that tests for
steroid use. But Hayden and school administrators want to look at
recreational drug use as well as performance-enhancing drugs.

"It was not necessarily my desire to expand it [to other drugs],"
Barnes said Monday. But he said school administrators and other
lawmakers felt there could be a problem with other drugs.

A Senate resolution to study the issue was introduced Monday, the last
day of the 60-day legislative session for senators to introduce bills.
The study would be reported to the Legislature next year.

Barnes sees a program of random drug testing of those involved in
extracurricular activities, not testing of all children involved. In
addition to athletics, the SSAC has jurisdiction over such activities
as bands.

"When you're using random testing, you're making a deterrent," the
senator said.

In addition, Hayden sees a stronger educational program about problems
associated with drug use, especially about long-term health effects of
steroid use and other drugs.

"Testing is just a small, minute part of trying to affect the
problem," he said.

A state Department of Education survey of high school students found
3.4 percent who said they had used steroids. Hayden noted that survey
included all students, not just those involved in extracurricular activities.

"They're there," he said. "They have to be because they're in
society."

The U.S. Supreme Court has outlawed drug testing of most public school
students, but has allowed school systems to test those involved in
extracurricular activities.

In West Virginia, all testing and programs have been left for county
school boards to initiate. So far, only Logan County conducts any
testing, and that is only for marijuana, Hayden said.

Barnes was initially concerned more about student-athletes. Some of
those, he believes, may be encouraged by their parents to use drugs in
order to gain college scholarships.

Hayden mentioned such drugs as human growth hormone that have cropped
up in recent reports of professional sports figures drug usage. But he
is also concerned about some performance-enhancing drugs being sold
over the counter at nutritional stores.

Barnes said it is not intended to be a method catching pot-smoking
kids who play in the band, cheer lead or participate in sports.

"It is not a witch hunt because we would have no intention of trying
to limit the number of kids who participate in school-sponsored
activities," he said.

But he does want to put the "element of fear" into those doing such
things.

"How many of us choose not to break laws because of a fear of being
caught?" he said.