OHSU GIVEN GRANT TO STUDY EFFECTS OF ATHLETE DRUG TEST PROGRAMS

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Oregon Health Sciences University said Tuesday it
has been awarded a $3.6 million federal grant to lead a national study on
whether drug tests actually reduce drug and alcohol use by high school
athletes.

"Drug testing may be an effective deterrent for substance abuse among high
school athletes, but we can't confirm that without studying it," said Dr.
Linn Goldberg, chief of sports medicine at OHSU, who will head the study
with Dr. Diane Elliot of OHSU.

The five-year study will begin some time during this school year at 24 high
schools in Oregon and Washington. About 10,000 Students will be randomly
tested on a lottery system.

The National Institutes of Health grant follows a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court
ruling allowing a rural Oregon school district to test athletes for drugs,
paving the way for testing across the country.

The Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, based in Oregon, Arizona
State University and the University of California at Los Angeles will
assist in the study.

"Student athletes represent nearly 50 percent of a school's enrollment and
are often opinion leaders," Elliot said. "An athlete's abstinence may
influence other students to avoid drugs as well."