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Re: [RC] APF What is in it, and would residues from its administrationviolate rule 13? - Truman Prevatt



Ed & Wendy Hauser wrote:
How do you define drug?  Only those drugs normally prescribed for horses?  What about substances that are not in regulated by the government?  
 
OK I think you are advocating producing a list of substances that will be tested.  Now some of these will be legal drugs, and some will be illegal substances with no known use in equine medicine.   Apparently, you feel it would be OK if someone were feeding anabolicsteriods to horses, as long as they withdrew long enough before a race. 
 
There are people out there with expertise in the field of pharmacology that could help work through this. I fact one such person went to the AERC in in mid 90's and offered her services  (she runs the pharmacology program at a major medical school and her husband and son were endurance riders ) and was told to mind her own business by a couple of the at that time board members.
The list would have to be revised on a frequent basis.  One of the problems in human sports is that there is a constant stream of new designer substances so the authorities are playing a continuous game of catch-up. 
 
The issue with designer substances is testing. They are designed to avoid testing and the catch-up is to develop effective test.
I used to think that it might be useful to develop a listed "action level" ,  as you suggest, for normal useful vet medicines with any level of illegal, harmful, or non useful substances being banned in any measurable amount.  The vet committee sort of does this now by looking at the amounts and type of substance found on a case by case basis when considering penalties.   I have since changed my mind.
 
The issue here is the sensitivity of testing has gone up between two or three orders of magnitude since the AERC drug policy was crafter, i.e. they 100 to 1000 more sensitive. They are in the parts per billion now and in some cases more sensitive and getting more sensitive. Today they can detect a anabolic steroid use six months prior - that's why there are designer steroids. If a person gave their horse two grams of bute today, he would test positive 1 month or two later if the most sensitive test were used. They are expensive but I suspect the prices are coming down every day. Do we really want to detect two grams of bute given two months ago and call that an infraction - that's zero tolerance.
Human sports are in a real mess because of the administration of banned substances.  I don't know, but suspect, that other horse sports have more evasion of the spirit of their rules than we do.  I also see postings on Ridecamp every few months from people who want to give a magic substance (usually herbal and therefore OK) to their horses.  I am beginning to believe that allowing this camel's nose under the tent wall would probably result in the whole camel inside in a few years.  I do not want endurance riding to be as corrupt as human sports.
When I was running there was no drug use other than aspirin every now and again. There may have been the odd person that tried something but  it wasn't a problem. The biggest issues where the East German and Chinese women(?) in the Olympics.  Today in track drug use is a major problem and every in every modern Olympics there is evidence of drug use. The use of designer drugs and blood doping agents is the biggest problem. What's the difference - money. When I was running track was an amateur sport and the Olympics were amateur. Today it is big business with the top runners pulling down six and sever figure incomes. The brass ring of a NFL, NBA or MLB contract is a huge insensitive. It even gets down to the high schools. In other equine sports where there is a lot more money there is a lot more incentive for performance enhancement. If the money comes to this sport the drugs will come with it.

Just because someone post that they have a magic elixir that did wonderful things doesn't mean that the elixir did more than enrich the producer of the elixir. The bottom line come right down to detection and enforcement. If something won't test it doesn't exist. It may be there but testing is the ARC method of observing it existence.

It is not an easy issue and for the most part the ARC has avoided many of the problems. Hopefully that will continue - but then there are is the debate on Gastroguard. As far as I am concerned if a substance has been show to have no effect like MSM and DMG then who cares. By arguing over these things and worrying about them we lose the sight on the bigger threat to the sport - allowing in drugs that have proven pharmacological effects, e.g. Gastroguard, so horses that should not be running on a given day could compete. IMO that is threat and any change in the policy that would allow that would make us no better than TB racing.

Truman

--
We imitate our masters only because we are not yet masters ourselves, and only

We imitate our masters only because we are not yet masters ourselves, and only

because in doing so we learn the truth about what cannot be imitated.

 


Replies
RE: [RC] APF What is in it, and would residues from its administration violate rule 13?, bobmorris
Re: [RC] APF What is in it, and would residues from its administrationviolate rule 13?, Truman Prevatt
Re: [RC] APF What is in it, and would residues from its administration violate rule 13?, Ed & Wendy Hauser