CALIFORNIA PROBES STANFORD DRUG TESTS

Sacramento - State officials are investigating the legality of a
Stanford University program that tested a powerful psychiatric drug on
teen-age inmates, the Los Angeles Times reported today. ``We're not
going to put up with wards being used as guinea pigs,'' Hilary McLean,
Gov. Gray Davis' spokeswoman, told the newspaper.

Earlier this month, the state attorney general and the state inspector
general were ordered to look into the ``legality of Stanford's
study,'' McLean said.

The eight-week Stanford experiment took place in 1997 at a detention
facility in Stockton. Sixty-one boys and men, ages 14 to 18, were
given Depakote -- a drug used to treat seizures and mania -- to see if
it would curtail aggression; all agreed to take part, the newspaper
reported.

None of the youths appear to have been harmed, according to subsequent
examinations. However, state officials question whether the drug tests
were in the best interest of the teen-agers.

``In the legal sense, and maybe in the moral sense, we missed the boat
on this one,'' said Robert Presley, the state's top corrections official.

Stanford officials said the facility's former medical director, Dr.
Dan Cashman, assured them the testing was legal.

To end the confusion, Presley issued a directive two weeks ago,
stating the youth detention centers cannot conduct, or allow anyone
else to conduct, medical research on inmates unless it meets the
governor's approval and is codified into law.