GREEN VALLEY PRINCIPAL - DRUG TESTING WORKS

Green Valley High School's foray into random drug testing for athletes
has created the kind of campus buzz that Principal Jeff Horn wants his
students to experience.

They're talking about doing the right thing, Horn said.

They're talking about why drugs are bad.

They're also coming to grips with a harsh reality. Athletes who test
positive for illegal substances jeopardize their eligibility to play
or perform while in Nevada public schools.

"It's been a great success so far," Horn said of the random testing,
which began Jan. 28.

"We've tested over 50 individuals now, and things have gone very
smoothly."

There has been a positive test result, Horn said Friday. One student
failed to pass random testing because of prescription medication. The
prescription was verified with the parents, and the matter was quickly
resolved.

"That worked exactly the way it was supposed to," Horn
said.

Random drug testing of athletes is new to regular high schools in the
Clark County School District.

Green Valley is well on its way to becoming an unofficial pilot
program, for the state as well as for other local campuses. Horn said
he's been contacted by at least four principals interested in creating
their own random testing program.

"I am going to monitor what happens at Green Valley and work
cooperatively with Clark County," said Eddie Bonine, executive
director of the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, which
regulates high school sports.

Bonine said he has no way of predicting whether random testing will be
embraced statewide. It's a question of philosophy, he said, and
different communities may not want to follow Green Valley's lead.

There's also the question of funding, Bonine said. Green Valley has
received private grants and is charging athletes a $10 fee to pay for
the costs associated with testing urine samples. Schools in rural
areas or less affluent communities may not be able to generate similar
financial support.

Across the nation, random testing of athletes is being embraced by
elected officials, parents and educators who see it as a
counter-measure for illegal drug use, especially performance-enhancing
drugs such as steroids.

New Jersey tests student athletes in championship games. Florida also
has a pilot drug testing program for high school athletes. Illinois
has plans to start one.

Texas is poised to launch the most ambitious public program of student
drug testing in the United States. This spring, the state will embark
on a two-year program to test up to 50,000 student athletes for
steroid use. The program was mandated by the Texas Legislature, which
earmarked $6 million for the program.

"It's the largest steroid-testing program in the nation," said Kim
Rogers, communications director for the University Interscholastic
League, which oversees high school sports in Texas.

The effort was fueled in part by research that showed about 2 percent
of Texas high school athletes were using steroids, Rogers said.

At Green Valley, the testing covers a wider spectrum of illegal
drugs.

Random drug-testing in high schools has become an increasingly common
practice since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2002 cleared the way for
authorities to do so.

But one leading researcher cautions that random testing is a limited
tool, not a cure-all, in the effort to reduce drug use among
teenagers. To test or not to test high school athletes is a decision
that should be made only after everyone is clear on the intent.

If the purpose is only to identify individual users, drug testing can
be an effective tool, said Dr. Linn Goldberg, who heads the Division
of Health Promotion and Sports Medicine at the Oregon Health and
Science University in Portland.

But if the goal is to discourage drug use and educate teenagers on a
large scale, then schools are better off spending their money on
prevention programs.

"If you want to catch them at it and stick them in therapy, do it,"
Goldberg said. "But if you want to prevent drug use, testing's not
going to do it."

Goldberg isn't anti-testing. He comes to the issue as a certified
doping control officer for the U.S. Olympics' drug-testing program.
His assessment is based on what he learned as the principal researcher
for the first randomized clinical trial to assess whether drug testing
is an effective deterrent.

Goldberg was surprised when the trial results showed that it's not.
Results of the trial were published in the November issue of the
Journal of Adolescent Health, a publication of the Society for
Adolescent Medicine.

The two-year study was conducted in 11 high schools within 150 miles
of Portland. The schools were split into two study groups. One set
designed a policy for drug testing and implemented it. The other
created a policy but delayed implementing it until the study was concluded.

One of the most meaningful findings among student athletes subject to
random testing: "The risk factors for future drug use worsened,"
Goldberg said.

At the schools with random drug testing, athletes were at-risk of
being selected throughout the school year. However, the study found
that the threat of random testing did not reduce substance use among
athletes in the month before they responded to a series of surveys.

In addition, researchers were surprised to find that students at
schools with random testing reported feeling less athletically
competent and believed less in the validity of drug testing. It did
not find that testing reduced the level of student participation in
athletics.

The study, referred to as SATURN for Student Athlete Testing Using
Random Notification, was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

"You have to have a prevention program," Goldberg said, adding that
the cost of one drug test for steroids could support prevention
education for 10 students.

"You have to decide if you want to give students the skills to prevent
use or give them the skills to avoid detection."

Goldberg said the SATURN study is the only random clinical trial that
has extensively explored random drug testing. A 2003 University of
Michigan study also found that random testing was not an effective
deterrent for student drug use.

There is a need for more research, Goldberg said.

Horn is aware that data on student drug-testing are
mixed.

For Horn, it's not about the research. Green Valley's policy of random
drug testing grew out of a school/parent committee formed last year to
identify and assist students with substance abuse problems. The group
came together after baseball players were caught in possession of
black tar heroin.

"If you can turn one kid around, throw the statistics out the door,"
Horn said. "We helped a kid."