Drugs - Therapeutic Use Exemptions

The issue of drugs has come up in a number of recent threads. In particular the relevancy of whether or not someone has tested positive.

Any athlete playing in a sport that follows the WADA code (including all sports that are affilliated to the IOC, as well as the GAA and IRB) can fill out a therapeutic use exemption form(TUE). They fill outthe form to declare if they are taking any medication that would result in a positive test for a banned substance.

The system existed prior to WADA's inception and has been abused for years. For example a couple of years ago stats showed that 20 per cent of French sportspeople were diabetic.

In the case of Lance Armstrong his TUE makes it virtually impossible to either clear his name or be proven guilty. The reason being that his medication pretty much breaks all the major substance violations.

Note that this doesn't mean that an athlete is allowed take a whole load of steroids.

Drug tests are looking for substances that result from the intake of drugs, so they won't find pure THG in a sample but they can find the proof it was there.

Personally I'm immensely sceptical of Armstrong because it's hardly to believe any cyclist is clean anymore.

For more information go to: http://www.wada-ama.org/en/dynamic.c...Category_id=98

Yes but that isn't exactly a shock. The fact of the matter is that his TUE
form effectively means thatno matter how many times he's tested it's nigh on
impossible for him to test positive.

I never said he I definitely was just that I believe he most likely is. Not
because he's won 7 tours but because he's competing at the premier level in
cycling which is so filthy that you pretty much need to be on drugs to
compete.

In any case I was using Armstrong as an example of the problems with
testing. Even if he is 100% innocent, which I have conceded is a possibility
although I am extremely doubtful, it is impossible to know for sure because
of the TUE.

The form is there so that athletes with medical issues aren't discriminated
against but like I said it has been abused for years. There have been some
benefits from it however as it means athletes who say "I took a cold
medicine" have no excuse because they should have declared it in advance.

The one big fear at the moment is that despite WADA's trojan work to inform
competitors of the TUE participants in sports that are relatively new to WADA's code. A senior county footballer I know was unaware that such a form existed.