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RE: [RC] SO not getting the drug rule hostility.... - Bob MorrisNow you all know why the rule stated: AERC PROHIBITS FROM COMPETITION EQUINES WHO CONTAIN EVIDENCE OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF ABNORMAL SUBSTANCES OR OF NORMAL SUBSTANCES IN ABNORMAL AMOUNTS (EXOGENOUSLY ADMINISTERED COMPOUNDS EVEN IF FOUND ENDOGENOUSLY) That was to complicated for some people so the vet committee made it a bit more confusing to solve the problem. Bob Bob Morris Boise, Idaho -----Original Message----- From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of k s swigart Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 7:45 PM To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] SO not getting the drug rule hostility.... Mary Krauss said: I don't understand the hostility surrounding drug ?regulations. What am I missing?? ? What you appear to be missing is that one of the substances that appears on the AERC's prohibited substances list (and more than one for all I know) is a compound that occurs "naturally in simple grain."? And as such, if one wants to adhere to the rule as written one cannot feed grain to one's horse. ? Seems to me a set of pretty well-intended, ? Well-intended does not equate with well-written.? Well-intended rules that aren't well-written (or well thought out?before being written) offen suffer from unintended condequences. ? "Zero tolerance" means zero tolerance for abuse --it doesn't refer to zero amounts of substances ?that occur naturally in simple grain and hay. ? Not everybody would necessarily interpret "zero tolerence" in this way although the words "zero tolerance" aren't used in the rule (so we have evidence of?at least one person reading something into the rule that isn't actually written there)?so it isn't necessary to decide how "zero tolerance" is interpreted, but rather how "prohibited substance" is interpreted.? I interpret "prohibited substance" to mean "you may not give this or anything containing this to your horse."? If there are other people who have other interpretations of "prohibited substance" I would be interested to know what that interpretation is.? And if, like Mary (I think), you interpret it to mean "don't abuse the substance" then I would like to have know the definition of "abuse" you are using. ? ?The good news is that the situation brings us ?back to exercising judgment--not at all a bad result. ? Personally, _I_ didn't have a problem with the old rule that required people to exercise their own judgement with respect to how they defined "drug" but lots of people were unhappy with it, so they decided to stop relying on people's judgement in this respect and decided to make a list of "prohibited substances" (whether everybody, in their own judgement,?would consider them drugs or not).?And then, by including gamma-oryzanol on this list of prohibited substances (without any caveat acknowledging that it is a common component of many regular feed stuffs and so is allowed in amounts below a certain threshold), the AERC currently has a rule that, if interpreted the way that it is written,?says, "You can't feed bran or oats to your competing endurance horse." ? I very much dislike some of the attitudes I have read about this (I am hoping) unintended consequence of having included bran and whole oats as prohibited substances (from my understanding of gamma-oryzanol, it might be that hulless oats don't have gamma-oryzanol in them, but I don't know this for sure). ? Truman's and Terry's attitude seems to be "they don't or can't test for it so it doesn't matter if it is on the list." Or, it's okay to break the rules as long as you don't or can't get caught doing so. ? And Mary's and Tom's attitude seems to be "it wasn't what I think was intended so it doesn't apply to what I am doing." Or, it's okay to break the rules as long as you don't think the rules actually mean what they say. ? I thoroughly dislike both of these attitudes about rules. ? I would prefer that the vet committee take gamma-oryzanol off the list of prohibited substances.? That way _I_ can comply with the rule as written, which is what I want to do. I wish that everybody else did too, but this is less important to me.? What matters to me is that _I_ would like to be able to enter an endurance ride without having to do what _I_ consider to be cheating (i.e. breaking the rules as written). ? I especially would like gamma-oryzanol to be removed from the list of prohibited substances not only because it pretty much cannot be avoided, but also that, from my limited investigations, there is no evidence that it should be on the list even if it COULD be avoided.? ? kat Orange County, Calif. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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