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FACING THE UNCOMFORTABLE REALITY OF DRUGS
There was a time when Jamaicans were content to believe that the only reason why our athletes lost races at global track meets was because they were competing against drug cheats.
We rejoiced whenever someone, especially an American athlete, got caught. News of an American testing positive was like hearing news that you just won the lottery and, to a large extent, validated our beliefs that our athletes were clean and were being the top because many of those who stood there were there because of the chemical help they had along the way.
But after 18 adverse findings over the past five years, including lifetime bans for Steve Mullings and Julian Dunkley, a six-year ban for Dominique Blake, and a rash of minor offences, suddenly Jamaicans, or a large number of us, are taking a different approach to this drug testing thing.
It was shortly after the Commonwealth Games in 2006 that I first started hearing this ‘mantra’ that Jamaican athletes don’t take drugs. I found it kind of amusing but really didn’t say anything publicly about it. I found it amusing because if there was ever a country with an ‘enhancement’ culture, it would be Jamaica.
When I was a little boy I would often hear grown men talk about the benefits having a Guinness and a Phensic before sex. It was during a time when concoctions like ‘Strongback’, ‘Irish Moss’ and pills called ‘gungu’ that my more senior high school colleagues would talk about when boasting about their sexual encounters, were all the rage.
Fast forward 20 years and we hear stories every day about young men taking Viagra to get that ‘extra’ edge in the bedroom. Many students suck down cans of stimulant-laden Red Bull and Monster for a variety of reasons. But no, Jamaicans don’t take drugs nor do our athletes take performance enhancers.
It’s almost as if we fail to recognize that many, if not all of our athletes grew up immersed in this culture of ours. How realistic is it that they would remain untouched by it?.
Now this is not to say that our elite athletes are getting help from a lab. The bulk of the adverse findings so far have been for stimulants – 2-methyl-4-hexanamine and oxilifrine and punishment has ranged from three to six months. In fact, in 2010 when a number of our athletes appeared before the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission, it was for the inadvertent ingestion of methyl-hexanamine. Like former elite sprinter Ato Boldon suggested recently, these are lesser offences in the grand scheme of things. These substances might be considered performance enhancers but the jury is still out as to how much enhancement they truly provide, especially in light of the fact that many ‘stimulants’ are legal when not taken just prior to competition.
That being said though, the fact is that now that an inordinate number of Jamaican athletes are running afoul of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Code, suddenly we have a problem; not with the athletes but with the code. When Dr. Wade Exum exposed the USATF’s alleged cover up of American athletes who failed drug tests but who were allowed to compete at major championships, we all cheered and exclaimed that we knew all along that they were cheating. In reality the hated Carl Lewis tested positive for stimulants too, but we continue to crucify him.
Yes, we know Lewis is not well liked. I used to hold him in high esteem and was my hero back in the 1980s, but I grew to dislike him, a lot. Still, one cannot deny the facts. He tested positive for a stimulant. Now however, when our athletes test for stimulants, all of a sudden the list of banned substances is too long and too varied. How are the athletes to cope?
Did we ever consider that when we were considering the case of many of the American or European athletes who failed tests during that period? Heck no! We were too caught up in the validation of our beliefs. Now that the shoe is on the other foot it is easy now to find fault with the system under which many athletes, those who cheat, are being exposed.
Here is the reality. Whether the list of banned substances is extensive or not, all the athletes have to live by it, not just Jamaican athletes. Our anti-doping agency has to do a better job of educating the athletes and the people, and the athletes need to do a much better job of watching what they take and what they eat.
Yes, a number of athletes, our athletes, are getting into trouble now but I don’t hear Bolt’s name being called, I never heard Juliet Cuthbert’s name being called. I never heard the names Winthrop Graham, Danny McFarlane, Juliet Campbell, Sandie Richards, Brigette Foster, Lacena Golding, or Donald Quarrie being mentioned in connection with any drug scandals. If these past greats could do it, the current generation can too.
We need to stop making excuses, stop living in a dream world and start facing reality.
http://gleanerblogs.com/sports/?p=2142
There was a time when Jamaicans were content to believe that the only reason why our athletes lost races at global track meets was because they were competing against drug cheats.
We rejoiced whenever someone, especially an American athlete, got caught. News of an American testing positive was like hearing news that you just won the lottery and, to a large extent, validated our beliefs that our athletes were clean and were being the top because many of those who stood there were there because of the chemical help they had along the way.
But after 18 adverse findings over the past five years, including lifetime bans for Steve Mullings and Julian Dunkley, a six-year ban for Dominique Blake, and a rash of minor offences, suddenly Jamaicans, or a large number of us, are taking a different approach to this drug testing thing.
It was shortly after the Commonwealth Games in 2006 that I first started hearing this ‘mantra’ that Jamaican athletes don’t take drugs. I found it kind of amusing but really didn’t say anything publicly about it. I found it amusing because if there was ever a country with an ‘enhancement’ culture, it would be Jamaica.
When I was a little boy I would often hear grown men talk about the benefits having a Guinness and a Phensic before sex. It was during a time when concoctions like ‘Strongback’, ‘Irish Moss’ and pills called ‘gungu’ that my more senior high school colleagues would talk about when boasting about their sexual encounters, were all the rage.
Fast forward 20 years and we hear stories every day about young men taking Viagra to get that ‘extra’ edge in the bedroom. Many students suck down cans of stimulant-laden Red Bull and Monster for a variety of reasons. But no, Jamaicans don’t take drugs nor do our athletes take performance enhancers.
It’s almost as if we fail to recognize that many, if not all of our athletes grew up immersed in this culture of ours. How realistic is it that they would remain untouched by it?.
Now this is not to say that our elite athletes are getting help from a lab. The bulk of the adverse findings so far have been for stimulants – 2-methyl-4-hexanamine and oxilifrine and punishment has ranged from three to six months. In fact, in 2010 when a number of our athletes appeared before the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission, it was for the inadvertent ingestion of methyl-hexanamine. Like former elite sprinter Ato Boldon suggested recently, these are lesser offences in the grand scheme of things. These substances might be considered performance enhancers but the jury is still out as to how much enhancement they truly provide, especially in light of the fact that many ‘stimulants’ are legal when not taken just prior to competition.
That being said though, the fact is that now that an inordinate number of Jamaican athletes are running afoul of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Code, suddenly we have a problem; not with the athletes but with the code. When Dr. Wade Exum exposed the USATF’s alleged cover up of American athletes who failed drug tests but who were allowed to compete at major championships, we all cheered and exclaimed that we knew all along that they were cheating. In reality the hated Carl Lewis tested positive for stimulants too, but we continue to crucify him.
Yes, we know Lewis is not well liked. I used to hold him in high esteem and was my hero back in the 1980s, but I grew to dislike him, a lot. Still, one cannot deny the facts. He tested positive for a stimulant. Now however, when our athletes test for stimulants, all of a sudden the list of banned substances is too long and too varied. How are the athletes to cope?
Did we ever consider that when we were considering the case of many of the American or European athletes who failed tests during that period? Heck no! We were too caught up in the validation of our beliefs. Now that the shoe is on the other foot it is easy now to find fault with the system under which many athletes, those who cheat, are being exposed.
Here is the reality. Whether the list of banned substances is extensive or not, all the athletes have to live by it, not just Jamaican athletes. Our anti-doping agency has to do a better job of educating the athletes and the people, and the athletes need to do a much better job of watching what they take and what they eat.
Yes, a number of athletes, our athletes, are getting into trouble now but I don’t hear Bolt’s name being called, I never heard Juliet Cuthbert’s name being called. I never heard the names Winthrop Graham, Danny McFarlane, Juliet Campbell, Sandie Richards, Brigette Foster, Lacena Golding, or Donald Quarrie being mentioned in connection with any drug scandals. If these past greats could do it, the current generation can too.
We need to stop making excuses, stop living in a dream world and start facing reality.
http://gleanerblogs.com/sports/?p=2142
Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 
05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015
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