The dosages of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) that athletes take greatly exceed the normal therapeutic amounts and typically several different types of AAS are taken together (stacked) or used at different times (cycled). Most athletes use AAS as training aids for recovery and discontinue use before an event so that they can later pass the competition drug test. During a typical steroid cycle, it is common for athletes to use other drugs such as diuretics to reduce fluid retention, thyroxine to promote weight loss, and tamoxifen to prevent gynecomastia. In the US and other countries, these agents are freely available in gyms and fitness clubs, regardless of their legal status.
Athletes with access to the right resources can beat the drug tests. Other athletes can not. The whole idea behind drug testing is to have a level playing field. Yet, in reality, this system is inherently unfair. If one athlete has the money and appropriate support personnel around them, they could certainly challenge a test. If another athlete has little money and knowledge, they will be at a serious disadvantage.
Anecdotal Stories
About 2-3 years before working as a drug test official, I was at a party being thrown by some collegiate athletes. People were lighting up joints everywhere and drinking alcohol like crazy. I knew my one buddy was going to get drug tested, because he was a big guy (almost 300 pounds) and he was always tested. Even though he wasn’t smoking anything (at least at that party) he wasn’t worried. He said he never tested positive for marijuana even though he got stoned plenty of times the night before a drug test. He figured that because he was so big he just got rid of any residues really fast. While that didn’t make that much sense to me, the fact was that he still had negative lab results. Based on the formal proceedings this didn’t seem possible. This became clear to me years later.
If you ever saw the movie “The Program,” then you were treated to the various non-chemical means by which athletes have tried to beat the drug tests. I have seen or heard of athletes getting caught trying to use someone else’s urine by planting hidden vials in the bathroom, keeping a plastic bag and a catheter down their pants, etc. I have never seen or heard of collegiate athletes infusing someone else’s urine into their own bladder in order to beat the drug test. I have heard of this at the professional and elite levels of competition, though. To get around all the mechanical methods that athletes used to beat AAS tests, several key checks were done on every urine sample, as it was produced. By 1995, the procedure had evolved to the following: an athlete goes into his locker room and sees a notice on his locker to show up for drug testing. The notices were supposed to be put out right before practice, so the athlete knows not to use the bathroom. After practice the athlete shows up to the drug test site, which was usually in or near the locker room. From that point on the athlete has a monitor assigned to him. The athlete selects his own container to urinate in. ID labels are placed on the cup and on other documents. The athlete and monitor go to the bathroom where the athlete urinates in front of the monitor. The monitor must witness the flow of urine into the specimen container. After the appropriate volume is collected and capped, the athlete and monitor return to the drug-testing site where documentation is completed and signed by the athlete. At this time, the pH, temperature, and specific gravity of the urine are measured using indicator strips on the sample container. (This would serve to eliminate the use of vials of urine and prevent tampering with the actual urine sample.) If all of the three measurements are within the appropriate range, then the athlete can sign off and leave. If even one is off, then another sample must be collected.
That was the routine stuff that the athlete saw. Now let’s talk about what really happens with the urine results. NCAA athletes are told that they will be tested for cocaine, marijuana, AAS, and amphetamines. They are led to believe that each sample will be tested for each and every drug. Remember my big buddy who never tested positive for marijuana? The reason is simple: they never tested his urine for marijuana. The rule of thumb that I learned years later was as follows: Since drug testing costs so much, the big guys like linemen, fullbacks, and shot putters would be tested for steroids, while smaller guys would be tested for other drugs, like marijuana. So to spell it out, it was totally possible that a wide receiver, light-weight wrestler, or some other small or thin looking athletes could use steroids and never get caught ,even though he was drug tested. On the other hand, a lineman could get stoned all the time and theoretically not test positive for marijuana or cocaine because they always tested his urine for steroids.
