On Saturday, NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield was suspended indefinitely for failing a random drug test. He joined LA Dodgers OF Manny Ramirez as another sports figure hit with a suspension over illegal drug use this week.

Laboratories that perform pre-employment drug screening are fighting back — against hundreds of products now on the market that promise to mask evidence of illicit drug use, according to an article scheduled for the Sept. 8 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS' weekly newsmagazine.

A year-long study from the Federal Government's advisory group on drugs has found drug testing in schools would be a waste of money.

Previous work has shown that, when a drug study was funded by the company that made that drug, the results might be biased in favour of that drug because the methods or analyses were manipulated.

In a petition filed today with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, an international coalition of scientists and doctors seeks to compel the agency to stem the flood of dangerous drugs reaching American consumers by mandating the use of scientifically superior non-animal testing methods when those alternatives exist.

Each year, pharmaceutical companies invest millions of dollars to test drugs, many of which will never reach the market because of side effects found only during human clinical trials. At the same time, the number of patients waiting for organ transplants continues to increase.

Random drug and alcohol testing does not reliably keep student-athletes from using. In fact, the mere presence of drug testing increases some risk factors for future substance use, Oregon Health & Science University researchers report. Their findings are published in the November issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, the journal of the Society for Adolescent Medicine.

In the daunting marathon that leads to successful drugs, promising drug candidates must pass toxicity tests before entering clinical trials.