How to Pass a Drug Test

It has been estimated that at least 100,000 times each year some athlete, somewhere in the world, is being subjected to a drug test. It is a 30 million dollar operation. Yet, even a cursory glance at today’s headlines indicates that the effectiveness of this project is, at least, debatable.

Many athletes claim that the drug tests are unfair. One reason for this is that at times they do not know, and cannot easily find out, exactly which chemicals are forbidden and which are not. This list, say athletes, can change from day to day and it is up to them to keep up with it somehow.

Procedures for doing testing also vary widely. In some cases athletes are given advance notice when a test is going to be given. This has led to a lucrative market in substances which claim to cover up or disperse a drug in the body. The obvious cure for this is random testing. But it is difficult to do random testing on a large group of people who are in communication with one another without having the times of testing fall into some kind of discernable pattern. This can create a logistical and administrative nightmare for drug screening. Then there is the question of making sure that there has been no switching or adulteration of urine specimens. The only way to be reasonably sure of this is to have the acquiring of urine specimens visually supervised by an official. Again, this can be a costly and potentially humiliating procedure.

Something else that varies greatly from one sport to another and from one country to another is what happens when there is a positive result from the testing. This is one of the many reasons to pass a drug test. Athletes may challenge the result, but they are often suspended while an investigation, a hearing or an appeal takes place.

Many athletes have learned to take a close interest in just how their urine sample is handled, and by whom, during the entire procedure. In such high-profile situations as Olympic or professional sports, the possibility of sabotage is always present and this is a great fear of many athletes. One can imagine the difficulties inherit in following these elaborately strict procedures on athletes who may be travelling to a different location from day to day.
In spite of these difficulties, it appears that drug testing of athletes is here to stay and, indeed, is becoming increasingly prevalent.