Drug testing is proving to be an inexact science

By Jayson D. Henry

Manny Ramirez failed a drug test and was suspended for 50 games by Major League Baseball, or did he?

A report published by the Los Angeles Times now says that the supposed drug, HCG, was not actually found in the slugger’s system. Instead, it was a prescription for that drug which landed the somewhat eccentric outfielder on the MLB bad list.

Now one thing that has to be pointed out is that even though Manny’s system did not show any HCG, his synthetic testosterone levels where far higher than those of an average man. The experts who have looked over the report say that even though the initially reported HCG was not present, the Dodgers’ star was still in violation of the league’s drug testing policy.

The problem is that apparently Ramirez did not actually have the drug in his system that he was originally suspended for. While he was in violation, the initial report was still in error prescription or no prescription.

What if the next guy to get suspended is not actually taking anything on the banned substance list? If a mistake was made in first place who’s to say there won’t be a mistake made the next time? And the next time that guy may not conveniently be guilty of something else.

Speaking of banned substance lists, that brings up the case of an organization that bans its competitors with no list at all, or at least not a public list anyway.

NASCAR recently sent driver Jeremy Mayfield to the garage of shame for failing its drug test. Trouble with this case is, NASCAR won’t tell what he tested positive for. For that matter, they won’t even say what it is a driver can take that will cause him to be banned.

Ryan Newman, among others, has said he’d like to see a list. Greg Biffle says he didn’t take some prescribed medications after a boating accident because he was afraid of a positive test.

Because of NASCAR’s secrecy, all sorts of rumors have been flying around as to Mayfield’s plight. Many out there in internet land seem to be convinced the drug Claritin-D was at the heart of Mayfiled’s positive test.

The conspiracy theorists are convinced that NASCAR won’t release the name of the drug because Claritin is a NASCAR sponsor and they don’t want to bring embarrassment to one of their partners.

Well, it’s not like NASCAR has any sort of history of playing favorites or anything(sarcasm alert).

The bottom line in the Ramirez case and the Mayfield case is that the testers are behind the drug creators. It will always be that way because the tests are often created as a reaction to a drug that is already out there. In other words, it is impossible to create a test for something that has not yet been invented.

This is not meant as some sort apology or defense of those using banned substances in sports. Anyone who believes that the sports world is pure and clean is living in a fantasy world. However, it would be nice if the testers would at least get the tests right or not attempt some sort of Watergate style cover-up.

At best, drug testing is an inexact science. At worst, it could all be a bunch of guesswork and cover ups.