Lawmaker Supports Mandatory Drug Testing For All Athletes

Gan Matthews, News 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The death of OU football player Austin Box has convinced a Broken Arrow lawmaker that it's time for mandatory drug testing of student athletes at colleges, universities, and even high schools.

The Medical Examiner found that there were five pain types of pain killers in Box's system. He had no prescriptions for any of them.

Rep. Mike Ritze plans to introduce his drug-testing bill next session. "We want to make sure there's some type of a uniform standard for student athletes," Ritze says, "so wt here won't be any guesswork if someone falls through the cracks possibly like Mr. Box did."

Norman Schools Athletic Director Frank Thompson says such a system would be costly, possibly as much as $60,000 in its initial stages.