You guys on this site kill me. It's so obvious that you have never been elite, that you have never been near elite, that you have never competed internationally, and that you have never even been in an elite camp, and that you have never even known any elites personally.
I've come to the conclusion that there is just no way to make you understand. It's like trying to explain color to a blind person.
You don't believe me. You don't believe anybody else who says the same thing, and it doesn't matter who they are, what their background is, or what they demonstrably know.
I can only guess that many of you are really young, and haven't been around the block. If you're a teenager, fair enough, that's life, I used to be there myself. If you're older, however, say 20 or above, you have no excuse. You should be at the age where you listen and learn, not where you recite glib mantras to assuage your sense of insecurity in the world.
In a way, it's nice that you don't believe, because that shows me that you haven't been directly exposed to the crap. It's not a pretty picture. Like Nick says, it's dirty, and it's filthy--and I'm talking about the moral and ethical dimension. Really, it's the same as anything in life, but the results of malfeasance are more direct, and the punishment if caught is knowable in advance and relatively benign, therefore the scum rises to the top.
When you get to be as old as I am, depending on your life experiences, you may find that the same dynamic plays out in many other areas, from business to clergy. The only difference in track is that the results are on display for everyone to see, directly.
Everyone who knows, deals with the truth in their own way. There is a full range of responses, from avoidance to denial to everything else, even among those in charge of doping control, sanction, and governing bodies. Since I recognized a while ago that there is little success to be made in educating those who do not wish to be educated, and also that there is an innocent purity among the young that maybe should not be disturbed, I have stopped throwing it in your faces.
But the world grinds on, and we get others doing it, like Symmonds. How you deal with it will be up to you. Hopefully the way you view the situation, and the way you act, will change as you mature--but some advice: be real but not bitter, and have respect for the innocence of kids.