Testing It Up

Golf is one sport that performance enhancing drugs don’t seem to play a part in and with the PGA’s new drug policy (instated last year) they’re out to make sure it stays that way. However Doug Baron has failed to pass a drug test and subsequently has been banned for the next year of play. It’s a surprising result seeing as Barron hasn’t been playing a consistent PGA tour schedule since 2006 and only managed to compete in four of the games in this year’s Nationwide tour.

While the tour declined further comment the 40 year old golfer apologized for his actions through them saying that he’d never intended to gain an unfair advantage over other players. As is standard the PGA only announced the positive result and the length of time Barron would undergo suspension as a result. The finer details of the incident and the exact drugs abused are details the PGA chooses to withhold. The announcement came November 2^nd after the drug test results came in.

The ban comes two weeks after the former head for the Chinese Olympics Committee admitted that most of the runners from China’s 2000 team had been disqualified for testing positive for drugs that had been banned. It had long been thought likely that these runners were abusing performance enhancing drugs to achieve their level of success. Wang has been told that she can appeal the ban if she’s willing to submit another urine sample for testing. While Wang is said to have accepted the ban she’s made statements that she never used drugs and a request for an investigation into the way testing is done. According to Wang’s results she tested positive for high levels of epitestosterone and testosterone. Her coach is also said to have received a lifetime ban.

China’s track and field athletes have been superstars in the world athletic spotlight since the early 1990s. In 1993 three of these athletes won gold medals for their efforts and earned world records in the 1,500 meters all the way through to marathons. At the time these runners passed drug testing without any trouble despite amazing skill and record breaking speeds. In 200 this changed as 6 runners had to be disqualified for failing in house drug screen in their own country.

Risk taking sexual behavior has long been connected to substance abuse but few doctors test for either if these high risk behaviors. CRAFFT, a diagnostic test developed for use at Children’s Hospital Boston allows physicians to test for substance abuse in only a few minutes time.  This same test, according to new research may also be able to test that child for high risk sexual behavior.  Children who were more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol were tested as being much more likely to fall into risky sexual behavior as well. These teens were much more likely to have sex with multiple partners, have unprotected sex and catch STDs from their partners. 305 adolescents ages 12-18 from 3 different urban clinics were tested to get the results.  The CRAFFT test was used alongside a self administered test about risky sexual behavior to reach the results.

When the CRAFFT results were compared to the questionnaire roughly 42.6% of those tested positive reported having had unprotected sex. 26.1% of those said that it occurred after drinking, 15.6% said it occurred after using drugs, and 21.7% had done so with a partner who had been drunk. The CRAFFT asks questions pertaining to drug use in specific situations. Those who answer ‘yes’ to more than two of these questions are generally dealing with substance abuse problems and are much more likely to have sexually risky behaviors as well. Having this testing available to the family’s regular doctor means that these behaviors can be caught at a point where they can be evaluated and stopped more completely through counseling, education and support about the risks involved.

New research indicates that the body mass and stamina associated with steroids comes at great cost to your kidney health. More and more athletes are using the muscle building drugs to gain an edge in their athletic careers despite the known side effects of the drugs. Now it appears those side effects could be just the beginning for many who habitually use steroids.

The researchers studied a grouping of 10 bodybuilders who used steroids for several years and developed severe reductions in kidney function and protein leakage in the urine. Kidney tests revealed that nine out of the ten bodybuilders developed a type of scaring in the kidneys called focal segmental glomerulosclerosis which only develops in those whose kidneys are put under immense stress. Kidney injury in the bodybuilders has a resemblance to the severe damage seen in morbidly obese patients, however it’s appears to be far worse.

When steroid use was stopped it seemed to reverse the effects of kidney damage except in a case so severe that the bodybuilder had undergone kidney failure and required dialysis. Based on their study the researchers came to the conclusion that as muscle mass grows so does the amount of work that the kidneys must do to keep the body going and filtered properly. The steroids themselves also put extra work on the kidneys and cause an overload of stress for the body and kidneys in particular. Bodybuilders need to cease using steroids to prevent this damage from destroying their kidneys a fact that these athletes and their doctors must remember.

Many professional fields have taken on a no drug policy since the 1980s and begun testing their employees (whether sports player or working Joe) to maintain that standard despite many attempts to subvert it. Now it seems that certain recording labels may be considering doing the same with their recording artists.

UK recording labels feel that there may be a lot to lose where it comes to drug use by their signed acts, so much so that they’ve been considering instating a drug policy of their own. The policy would be a clause in the contract that recording artists sign when they join a label. Michael Jackson’s homicide brought on the move by a newly formed alliance led by Marc Marot, a former head of Island Records. The clause would require that a recording artist who was found to be abusing substances would receive no payment for their work until they’d undergone treatment for the abuse.

These concerns rise from recording artists who’ve signed a 6 album record contract with labels and then begun to abuse drugs delaying their ability (or negating it) to provide what they’d promised in their contracts.  But if such a clause were instated how much would it change the recording industry and the way that artists are paid for their work? Couldn’t it in fact allow a label to renege on a contract entirely on the basis that an album’s sales weren’t good and the label made up a phony positive drug test result?

Few parents understand what a widespread problem drugs are among adolescents or just how deadly and dangerous the drugs they can get are. Living in the suburbs doesn’t exclude these teens from trying and becoming addicted to heavier drugs like heroin. In the fact the high stress, highly competitive environment may encourage substance abuse which can escalate into serious addiction very quickly. Among teenagers in the region of Nassau County in the state of New York 25 overdosed on heroine in the first 6 months of 2009, in 2008 46 overdosed on the same drug and 2007 27 perished from overdose. Where once drug raids netted hundreds of bags of heroine now they retrieve thousands.

These kids aren’t from impoverished homes or seemingly at risk for developing addiction, many are in their teens and twenties (often hone roll students) and the rate of those who abuse the drug are rising over time. The age of use is dripping as the rate of young users rises and the cost of buying heroine lowers. Currently a bag of the drug that provides a 6-8 hour high can be bought for roughly $5-$25 which is a vast difference for the same amount of cocaine which costs $40-$60 for just a 30 minute high. Even prescription medications like OxyContin are much more expensive and cost roughly $40 per pill on the street. It’s actually cheaper and easier to get than alcohol. The worry of this kind of use only grows worse when you consider the much stronger dose of today’s heroin over that of the 1970s and the fact that these kids see the thrill of barely escaping death part of the high.

Overdose numbers have already prompted education programs about the dangers of heroin for 8^th graders but the level of abuse remains high. The only real way these numbers are going to drop is if parents stop looking away from their children’s problems and instead make steps to help resolve them.

The tennis star whose recent revelation that he used crystal meth in 1997 (the year he dealt with having dropped out of the sport along with other personal problems) sent shockwaves through the sports world, is now making it very clear that that use didn’t extend to the court. In fact the star claims that doing such a thing would have been physically impossible.

”No, I never did it in tournaments, I never did because it would have been a disaster. It’s hideous; it’s not the way you feel but what you’re incapable of. Your heart rate runs high enough as it is but to have that kind of heart rate and to tell yourself to calm down and hit a second serve is literally impossible. Then there’s the dehydration factor, the fact you can’t drink a lot of water, you don’t want to eat, you just wanna burn, you wanna burn, you wanna burn. You’d be lucky to last a set; it would not be physically possible to play a match without real health problems.”

Regretting his lies to the Association of Tennis Professionals the tennis star admits that it was the low point of his life, having made a name for himself in a career he didn’t choose for himself (a decision he says his father pushed on him) and hopes that his talking about it can help others who are stuck in a similar place.

“If my story can help one person let alone millions of people who wake up in a life they didn’t choose, wake up in a marriage they didn’t want … if it can help a teenager about to step into the pitfalls I stepped into – then that’s an easy price to pay if the price is some judgments, or some loss of reputation or some false image.”

One of the best ways to learn is to learn from our various life experiences. On various posts, we have shared stories that many may have learned from, regardless of whether these stories are inspiring or sad and disheartening. Quite a number of these stories had something to do with drugs and drug testing.

Most of these stories, however, involve celebrities and their latest misadventures and mishaps. While this may prove interesting to some of us, most of us are not exactly celebrities and will not be able to relate to some of these experiences.

We at TestCountry recognize the fact that the best source of these stories are our readers, and it is for this reason that we would like to encourage you to share your drug testing stories with us. In gratitude to those who will share their interesting stories, we will be giving away $200 grocery rebate cards to those whose stories will catch our attention the most.

You can share you own experiences by posting a comment to this article. From among these stories, we will choose 3 winners to receive $200 grocery rebate certificates, which can be used in any store in the United States. Only readers aged 18 years and above are eligible to participate and post their stories.

You will have about a month to share your stories, as we will be choosing our three winners on December 4. Readers who send in their stories are requested to indicate their real and valid e-mail addresses, as we will send the information on how to claim prizes through email. We would like to assure you that your e-mail addresses will not be published.

So, share your stories now, help someone learn from what you have gone through, and get a chance to win a $200 grocery certificate!

Recent information about a shot that can help cocaine adducts break the habit  and the HPV drug Gardasil have kicked off an interest in the possibly of treating addiction with medication and now the U.S government would like to see drug companies make many more of these treatments for addiction. Drug companies were already very drawn to the idea of such drugs due to the major success of Gardasil despite recent deaths and illnesses associated with the vaccine. The government wants to encourage real growth in medicine that fights disease and encourages successful research into disease treatment over time.

Among these treatments currently being researched is a new nicotine addiction vaccine called NicVAX which works by stimulating the immune system to make antibodies against nicotine much like the cocaine addiction treatment that is receiving such buzz. In fact the vaccine for cocaine was developed by the same doctors that made the tobacco vaccine. This new wave of vaccines and treatments are expected to be able to help addicts if they get through the studies that often make or break such drugs. It’s thought that the government is backing such medication development to get pharmaceutical companies to pay for the trials themselves and feel motivated to pursue them. If this effort pays off we may have some real progress in treating addiction of several forms, something that could save billions worldwide every year.

New Zealand now has a drug testing kit capable of testing for drug use over the last 3 months using only a few hairs from the person being tested. This is a major improvement over current tests which can only determine use in the last few days before testing but it’s also proving to be a bit of a controversy for those who feel it’s a potential tool for the invasion of privacy. The reason for the concern stems from the group of people its marketed towards, namely parents with teenagers.

The effectiveness of the hair sample kit makes it more effective than standard urine and blood testing kits and therefore negates them. NZ Drug Detection Agency, the creators of the testing kit claim that its sole focus is helping parents to prevent their child from becoming an addict. According to the Children’s Commissioner John Angus however, it makes it far too easy to simply go into your child’s room and steal a few hairs to test, a method that is just as dishonest as the act of hidden drug use they worry their child is practicing behind their back. Taking such action can damage the relationship you have with your child whether they’re actually using or not. The violation of trust involved should cause the parent to discuss it with their child rather than inspiring the theft of their hair.