Dopes on Dope

Well the whole performance enhancing drug issue is spiralling out of hand.

There's one guy - Barry Bonds - who is generally accepted to have taken performance enhancing drugs (mostly recently it is alleged he tested positive for amphetamines) but has never tested positive. He is about to break an "unbreakable" record and will be simultaneously scorned and celebrated. Is it OK? It was at least unethical but not at the time against the rules - although it was illegal. He'll break the record and the record will stand with an asterisk that fades over time. Maybe instead of the AL and the NL we should have stock and modified divisions.

One thing that I have heard is that criticism of Bonds is racism. That's complete and utter crap. Bonds is chasing the record but Mark McGwire if anything has had more scorn heaped on him with his "I don't want to look back." comments to Congress. Floyd Landis has also been regularly mocked and scorned. Barry is a cheater. It doesn't matter whether he is black, white or green. The whole chase thing is a charade. I don't remember what Mark McGwire hit for average when he broke the single season record but it was clear that every swing was a home run swing. The team be damned. At least Barry looks a lit more like he's picking his spots.

Now we have the Canadian wheel chair athlete Jeff Adams who was suspended for testing positive for cocaine. He my in fact be innocent. Unfortunately very few cheaters admit they cheated when caught so we again have the standard denials. This defence goes a step beyond snowboarder Ross R who was in the room with people smoking pot. This guy says an unknown street person put cocaine in his mouth in a bar one night. He didn't report it a the time (although his wife is a police officer) and says that a catheter that he used that night must have been contaminated and caused the positive test. If a stranger put a white substance in your mouth in a bar wouldn't you want to know what it is? Unless you've done it before how would you know its cocaine. If you are an elite athlete and it happens wouldn't you want to make sure you were covered rather than hiding the incident? On the other hand, if you were guilty, wouldn't you come up with a better story than this one? Makes you wonder but I for one am tired of drugs in sport stories.