Oregon: Study: Random testing lowers use of drugs

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, only 5.3 percent said that 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.

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

The results are published in next month’s Journal of Adolescent Health.

California: Hotel had history of safety violations

The drab San Bernardino residential hotel where four people were killed in a trash can fire had a history of fire and safety code violations, City Atty. James Penman said Sunday.

Penman said the batteries had been replaced on numerous smoke detectors after an August fire inspection at the Sunset Hotel. Those repairs, he said, probably saved a number of lives. Fire doors also were installed last month.

More than 90 people lived in the beige stucco hotel, where rooms rent for $425 a month. Many occupants have alcohol and drug problems, and some had been placed there by the San Bernardino County mental health department, Penman said.

Fire spread through the hotel’s top floor early Saturday morning, killing four people and injuring 17 more. Firefighters rescued 30 people, including infants and children, many of whom were screaming for help from hotel windows.

California: Hijacked tourist trolley stopped on freeway

A man boarded a tourist trolley that his ex-girlfriend was driving Sunday, held a gun to her head and led police on a freeway chase before he was caught, authorities said.

The incident began around 11:30 a.m. when witnesses saw Jayson August, 49, get on the trolley at the Coronado Bridge tollbooth, police said.

Officers chased the trolley, which had no passengers on board, as it drove across the bridge and then north through San Diego before turning east.

Police stopped the trolley after an hour-and-a-half by throwing spike strips in front of it. A police dog bit August and police arrested him for investigation of carjacking, assault and kidnapping, Coronado Police Sgt. Jeff Hutchins said.

August was being treated for minor injuries. His ex-girlfriend was not hurt.