According to a study led by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE), a high proportion of public school districts have instituted random drug testing beyond sanctions set by the U.S. Supreme Court on their high school students.

Dr. Ringwalt was of the view that this study will offer a new paradigm to monitor the occurrence of random drug testing to curb the use of steroids in sports and public schools in the future.

From News-Medical.Net:

Nearly all school districts that implemented random drug testing procedures subjected their athletes to the possibility of being tested, and two-thirds randomly tested high school students who participated in other extracurricular activities. More than a quarter of the districts that implemented random drug testing subjected all their high school students to the possibility of being tested.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1995 that testing student athletes for drugs is constitutional, even in the absence of any suspicion of substance use. In a subsequent case, the Court extended its ruling to include students participating in extracurricular activities.

“Random student drug testing will likely continue to be controversial and the practice is likely to be contested, just as we saw with the recent ruling by the Washington State Supreme Court,” said Dr. Chris Ringwalt, Senior Research Scientist at PIRE. The Washington State Supreme Court ruled on March 13, 2008, based on a lawsuit that student athletes brought against a local school district, that random drug testing of student athletes is not allowed under the state’s constitution, despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1995 ruling (Supreme Court of the State of Washington. York v. Wahkiakum School District No. 200. Docket No: 99-2-00075-6, March 13, 2008).

It is essential to note here that there are some steroids that can help sportsmen deliver great on-field performance when taken under qualified medical guidance and as per instructions. The fact that more and more existing and budding sportsmen are using steroids these days may be one of the triggers behind this new study. However, it would be interesting to see whether this study will be able to keep off steroids from sports as presently that seem to be a distant possibility.