There are two primary issues that make the drug question irrelevant.
#1- Do drugs really help runners to run faster. If so, they would help runners to run either faster, or to hold their speed longer.
Sprint times for 200m have not improved significantly in the last 40 years. Championship races were run in much the same times then as they are now. Thus the advent of any more extensive drug use has not resulted in faster performances for top speed.
Considering endurance events, top runners run the marathon in about 32 times the speed of their mile (1500m). For example, a 4:00 miler on an endurance program should be able to run a 2:08 marathon. Joan Benoit ran 4:36 and 2:21:21 which is a ratio of 30.73.
Now if someone didn't slow down at all their ratio would be 26.2188. So if drugs helped, the ratio would be enhanced somewhere between 30.73 and 26.2188, probably at least in a range of under 30 times the speed of 1 mile. However, in reality this does not happen.
Haile Gebreselassie's mile (3:31 x 1.08) x 32 would give him a marathon time of 2 hours and 1 minute, yet his only competitive marathon was 2:06. Thus he has the mile speed to run much faster for the marathon with endurance training and no kind of unusual questionable "aids" like drugs.
These two comparisons show that drugs, whether they work or not, have not proved to be of any aid to performances.
#2- Are the test protocols accurate.
First of all, let me ask any of you reading this: do you know what they test protocols are? I am willing to bet that 99.9% of you don't have any idea of what the protocols really are.
If you do, then let me ask you these questions
(1) What is the "normal" range of EPO values, what is the range of values that would be considered a "positive" result, and what is the range of any overlap?
(2) What is the range where false positives are likely to occur and what is the percentage of those false positives.
(3) What is the range where false negatives are likely to occur and what is the percentage of those false negatives.
(4) What was the value of Olga Yegorova's A sample in Paris that caused so much controvery a few years ago?
Do ANY of you know what it was????????
What were the values of Paula Radcliffe's A and B samples and the Chicago and London Marathons?
Do ANY of you know the results of those tests???
What we have been getting is a bunch of crap, headlines accusing people without any substantiation or facts, test "results" with NO results, where the protocols are not even identified and the test results are not released to the public.
Thus the real facts point to two things:
#1 There is very likely NO increase in performance with drugs, and
#2 "If" there is an increase in performance with drugs, the accuracy of any protocols to determine such an increase and/or use of such drugs is non existent, falacious, and false.