STUDY: RANDOM DRUG TESTING WORKS IN SCHOOLS

PORTLAND - Student-athletes subject to random drug testing at an Oregon
high school were almost four times less likely to use drugs than their
counterparts at a similar school who were not tested, a study shows.

The one-year pilot study by researchers at Oregon Health & Sciences
University compared Wahtonka High School in The Dalles, where all
student-athletes were subject to random testing, and Warrenton High School,
a demographically similar school near Astoria, where they were not.

Of the 135 athletes subject to the random testing at Wahtonka, 5.3 percent
said they were using illicit drugs by the end of the school year, versus
19.4 percent of the 141 athletes at Warrenton.

They also were three times less likely to use performance-enhancing
substances like steroids, according to the survey responses, which were
confidential.