RANDOM TESTS MAY REDUCE DRUG USE BY SCHOOL ATHLETES

PORTLAND, Ore., Dec. 29 (AP) - Student athletes subject to random drug
testing at an Oregon high school were about a fourth as likely to report
using drugs as their counterparts at a similar school who were not tested,
a study to be published next month in the Journal of Adolescent Health has
found.

The yearlong study by researchers at Oregon Health and Sciences University
compared Wahtonka High School, where athletes were subject to random
testing, and Warrenton High School, a demographically similar school near
Astoria, where they were not.

By the end of the school year at Wahtonka, only 5.3 percent of the 135
athletes said they were using illegal drugs, compared with 19.4 percent of
the 141 athletes at Warrenton.

The Wahtonka students were also only a third as likely to use
performance-enhancing substances like steroids, the survey responses, which
were confidential, indicated.

The study, in the 1999-2000 school year, was financed by the National
Institute on Drug Abuse, an arm of the National Institutes of Health.

"The differences between the schools were dramatic," said Dr. Linn
Goldberg, a lead researcher. Students who were not athletes were not
subject to drug tests but did fill out questionnaires that indicated
similar levels of drug use at the two schools - 32.2 percent at Warrenton
and 26.6 percent at Wahtonka.

The report comes six months after the issue of drug tests for students was
the subject of a ruling by the United States Supreme Court. In June, it
ruled that children attending public schools could be tested for drugs if
they joined any competitive after-school activity, even chess.

Merry Holland, principal at Wahtonka, said the school has continued to test
athletes since the study ended.

Ms. Holland said she believed the program had helped curb drug use. But the
drug testing has also led some students to switch to substances not
tracked, she said.

"There are a lot of parties with alcohol," Ms. Holland said. "If they want
to stay with sports, and participate, they might switch to something they
think is harder to detect."

About 5 percent of the nation's schools require drug tests for athletes.
About 2 percent test students in other activities.

The Oregon pilot study was the forerunner of a three-year study at 13
Oregon high schools.

The larger study was to examine whether the threat of testing keeps
students from drugs. It was suspended in its third year after a federal
agency expressed concern about some methods used in its latter two years.

The agency, the Office of Human Research Policy, said the study violated
federal regulations by not properly obtaining informed consent from
children and not protecting research subjects from coercive environments.
The survey results used in the published study were not affected.

The researchers responded this month with offers to ensure student
confidentiality, to stop using principals and coaches to solicit
participation and to end financial incentives for schools to participate.
Dr. Goldberg said researchers are waiting to hear whether the study may be
resumed.