Weldon's Misguided Doping Effort

This is the point I am trying to get at since I am getting bored with this.

You wrote: But b-samples can differ from a-samples for lots of reasons, not just contianimation.

So, it sounds like if an 'A' sample and a 'B' sample differ then there is obviously a problem. You are proposing that we start lawsuits against those that are found guilty and your evidence is tests that can be flawed. This is why the lie detector test is not allowed in court because it is possible that it is flawed.

The only way lawsuits should be able to be brought against dopers is if the tests are very reliable. Which is not the case at this time. There are probably a lot of drugs we cannot detect (I asked you at least twice about that and you failed to comment on that). So how do you fix a flawed test that cannot detect everything? Probably research and develop more reliable testing procedures. This takes money unless you have some friends that will donate their time.

Now, I realize that I am not allowed to have this opinion until I come up with the answer of how to get this money. I am going to say all USATF members have to donate plasma. Hopefully you will allow me to have this opinion since I provide a possible way of getting that money.

rrrrrrrrrr-

This thread has drifted into into a different discussion than Old Dude began with. My assessment of his message is that Weldon has begun to move from part of the solution to part of the problem. Talking about testing protocols, the need for more money, international cooperation, lifetime bans, whatev perpetuates the problem. Continually restating truisms provides individuals with the sense that they are doing something---this becomes a replacement for actually doing something. Even guys like Dick Pound are guilty of this. Weldon, like all of us, is confused about what to do---I'm sure. This isn't a slight on his character, but it does make one wonder what his motive in continually thowing front page whitge gas on the performance enhancing drug fire. I personally wonder if this is simple marketing of the website.

I'm not asking for the anti-drug movement to give up, I'm asking for Weldon to stop writing about it until he can participate in a solution---as the talk is becoming a part of the problem. My 2 cents.

What if the solution is to stop zero tolerance and to allow more allowable enhancing drugs than they already allow.

Faced with this the Weldon's of this world have to admit they got it wrong.

Drug testing is far to expensive and scientifically difficult to develop within the time frame that WADA pretend is possible to do.

The athlets lie that they don't take drugs and the testers lie that they can catch them.

Interesting question, who is the bigger liar? Athletes that claim they don't take drugs (or drugs are not a problem in sports) or the testers that claim they have a way to catch them and need more Weldon's of the world to lobby to get them more money?

Birmingham-

I think you raise an important point. I would love for the drug problem to go away, but is that possible? A question we, as an athletic society, should be asking ourselves is, "Is it possible--even with our best efforts---to clean up sport?"

Based on our 2 or 3 decade WAR ON DRUGS, I'd say no. In the time that we have been fighting the import of cocaine, weed, heroin, etc., the importation of these drugs has increased 100 fold. Using this as our guide, one might conclude that the more sophisticated efforts we engage in to stop performance enhancing drugs, the worse the problem will get.

Maybe we should be thinking more creatively about what is next for sport in general rather than trying to protect the status quo.

The analogy to the War on Drugs is a bit off.

With the War on Drugs we don't have people come take an unannounced drug test to see if they're using any illegal drugs. I'd like to believe if we spend the money we can come up with tests to catch the vast majority of cheats.

Hot on drugs.

The initial reason for drug bans was health.In WADA they officially ban drugs that are not harmful.

If we return to health we may have a way to get ourselves out of this mess.Health is a relative matter so we can draw the line anywhere we want and inc volume of drugs as well.

One of the strange things is that we have hundreds of deaths each year from paracetamol.Many take it ,in various forms, so they can train.Yet it is not banned.Ditto aspirin and esp so as this is a blood thinner.I could go on pointing to the stupidities of the system.However the point being that the banned list is a moveable feast.It can become more servere or less.Less may be the way we are forced to go.

dmb says.........Wejo might not get all the details right..........

Um, Wejo wants to lead the charge against drugs in sports so it behooves him, if he wants to remain creditable, to make sure he gets the details right. No more shooting from the hip and hoping you hit something. We need Wejo to push the issue but he has to keep it straight.

And he has to seperate this mission from his forum instead of tying his editorials and comments directly into the forum. Allowing the thread accusing J W of being on drugs to continue as long as it did simply makes anything else said suspect.