I Wanna New Drug

Here's a press release from the new journal Drug Testing and Analysis: "A new test will help sports officials stay one step ahead of the game by allowing them to screen for [some of these] emerging drugs, as well as others in the same class that have not yet reached the market. The test detects a core chemical structure belonging to a class of compounds called benzothiazepines. These compounds stabilise protein channels that would otherwise “leak” calcium from muscle cells during strenuous exercise. Calcium is needed for muscle contraction and this "leaking" effect weakens the contractions and is a causal factor in muscle fatigue. JTV-519 and S-107, benzothiazepines currently in development for the treatment of heart abnormalities, are known to increase endurance in mice. Although they have not yet entered human clinical trials, both can be detected using the test. “As soon as these drugs enter human clinical trials, there is a huge potential for them to be misused in sports. This preventive research lets us prepare before these compounds are officially launched,” says Mario Thevis, Director of the Center for Preventive Doping Research at the German Sport University of Cologne, Germany, who led the research."

My question is, who cares?

I mean, it's great that they're discovering new ways to treat heart abdormalities. It's also great that we can scientifically investigate what helps and what hinders athletic performance. But who cares about making new rules to stop athletes from "cheating?" Does it really matter?

It's only cheating if athletes take a banned substance, and substances are only banned if they cause an obviously unfair advantage. So, while every athlete looks for every advantage they can get - technical, nutritional, and otherwise, as long as it's legal and permissible, the drug police are looking to get a jump on testing for substances that aren't even banned yet. Sounds to me like the drug companies and researchers would like to have found the next big thing, so they can sell it to amateurs.

If pickle juice really worked to increase physical endurance, wouldn't you want to know how the science behind it? And if pickle juice was found to increase athletic performance consistently by a great amount regardless of peripherial factors, then wouldn't its usage constitute an unfair advantage? Would pickle juice be banned from races, and would winners have to have their blood tested for pickle juice? And everywhere across America, age-groupers would be popping pickle-juice packets so they, too, could be world class.