Can Public, Fans Understand Drug Testing?
By Tom LaMarra
http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...d-drug-testing
Updated: Tuesday, December 8, 2009 8:29 AM
Posted: Monday, December 7, 2009 10:05 PM
Therapeutic versus non-therapeutic. Class 4 therapeutic drugs that can impact a racehorse’s performance. Testing in urine versus blood. “Positives” for drugs that may not have impacted performance but led to fines, suspensions, and damaged reputations. Nanograms and picograms. And something called “zero tolerance.”
The sensitivity of equine drug testing is a big plus for the racing industry, but it also has created confusion. How are the public and media supposed to understand when some industry participants can’t make sense of it?
Such is the challenge facing the industry, members of which met Dec. 7 in Tucson, Ariz., for the one-day Racing Officials Accreditation Program Conference on Officiating Horse Racing. The topic was equine medication and drug testing, and prosecution of related cases.