SETTLEMENT WRAPS UP DRUG-TEST CASE

OHSU and Others Will Pay $90,000 in Costs and Fees to Attorneys For
the Dallas High School Plaintiff

Lawyers on Wednesday settled a class-action lawsuit over a
controversial study of drug testing in Oregon high school athletes,
ending years of court challenges to the research.

The settlement calls for the Oregon Health & Science University,
several school districts and some employees of both -- to pay the
plaintiffs' lawyers $90,000 to cover their fees and costs. The
defendants do not admit to any liability under the agreement, approved
Wednesday morning by U.S. District Court Judge Garr King.

The settlement gives no money to the two plaintiffs named in the
settlement, students Beth Wade and Ivan Donayri. But Wade's New Jersey
lawyer, Alan Milstein, told King he would give her $5,000 from the
lawyers' portion "for the help they have given us."

Milstein and two Portland lawyers filed the federal suit almost two
years ago naming only one plaintiff: Wade, a former Dallas High School
student. That suit asked the court to award at least $10 million in
real and punitive damages on top of lawyers' fees and to bar
researchers from using any data gathered in the drug-test study. King
threw out nine of that suit's 10 claims a year ago.

Wednesday's agreement settles the final claim. State courts previously
rejected a suit by Oakridge School District student Ginelle Weber
claiming that the drug testing was barred by the Oregon
Constitution.

"It's all over," said Robert Shlachter, the lawyer representing OHSU
and five doctors involved in the suit.

Wade is among scores of high-school athletes from 14 Oregon school
districts who took part in the SATURN study, led by Dr. Linn Goldberg,
head of OHSU's Division of Health Promotion and Sports Medicine. In
2000, the federal government gave a $3.6 million grant to fund that
three-year study of whether mandatory testing discourages high
schoolers from using recreational drugs, alcohol or steroids.

Several students and parents soon began complaining that they were
coerced or forced into the medical experiment and that their rights
were being violated. Those complaints spurred the suits and an
investigation by a federal research oversight board, which halted
OHSU's study in 2002.

The study never restarted, and university officials say it is now
dead. Scholars have widely criticized the study as unethical. But the
OHSU researchers maintain their study was well designed but
misunderstood. They are evaluating the data they collected and may try
to publish their findings.

Although they initially asked for millions, Milstein said Wednesday
that "really, our primary interest was to bring an end to this study."
Portland plaintiffs' attorney Robert Swider told King that the
students had not been physically injured by the study, but had "their
conscience shocked at having to participate."