HALT INVASIVE RESEARCH ON KIDS

An intrusive drug-testing study in 13 Oregon school districts has been
suspended for violating federal standards of research on human subjects.
Suspension isn't enough.

The study should be canceled, and Oregon students deserve an apology.

The grand experiment started two years ago when Dr. Linn Goldberg of Oregon
Health & Science University won a three-year, $3.6 million grant to
determine whether random urine testing deters drug and alcohol use among
high school athletes. Students in the "control" schools just filled out the
questionnaire, while students in the "experimental" schools were forced to
make a difficult choice:

If you want to play sports, be a good little guinea pig and urinate on
demand for the authorities. Otherwise, get thrown off the team and publicly
criticized by others -- including Goldberg -- for wrecking the study.

A few brave families dissented and filed a class-action lawsuit in June
against OHSU and the school districts. As The Oregonian's correspondent
Alice Tallmadge reported last week, a federal investigation by the Office
for Human Research Protections has vindicated these families. Federal
investigators told OHSU President Peter Kohler in an Oct. 24 letter that
the study had to be suspended until problems involving possible coercion,
inadequate training, improper incentives and other issues were resolved.

Random drug testing in school may be considered constitutional under
limited circumstances, but forcing people to be subjects in federally
funded research is unethical.

Forcing children to act like laboratory rats to play sports in public
schools is unconscionable.

This research project should be axed.