Professional athletes who purposely use anabolic steroids are “almost never” caught according to a top anti-doping attorney who has defended dozens of high-profile athletes involved in doping cases. Attorney Howard Jacobs believes most athletes who receive analytical positives inadvertently consume a contaminated dietary supplement or fail to read the ingredients on medications prescribed by their doctor. In other words, they are not really trying to cheat.
“I think by and large athletes that want to cheat and have the means, can. If they have the resources and the desire, they can hire somebody to learn how to evade the test,” according to Jacobs. “I think people who are really trying to cheat almost never get caught.”
Jacobs does not think the anti-doping protocols in use by anti-doping agencies such as the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) are particularly effective. The protocols tend to have a high rate of false positives and an even higher rate of false negatives. They usually only catch athletes who accidentally consumed a prohibited substance.
Instead, Jacobs feels that the use of government investigations (into the distribution of anabolic steroids and perfromance-enhancing drugs) is much more effective strategy for catching athletes who use steroids. He notes that one of the major initiatives of USADA and WADA involves convincing governments to start hunting athletes who dope.
Howard Jacobs has defended numerous high-profile athletes who have used and/or been accused of using performance-enhancing drugs. He has defended American cyclist Floyd Landis after Landis tested positive for using exogenous testosterone at the 2006 Tour de France; Olympic sprinter Marion Jones who admitted using THG and hGH; Olympic swimmer Jessica Hardy who tested positive for trace levels of clenbuterol; and Olympic sprinter Tim Montgomery who admitted using anabolic steroids and hGH.
Jacobs has been called the “athlete’s lawyer” by his fans and the “Johnnie Cochran” of doping lawyers by his detractors.
Potkey, R. (August 13, 2011). Jacobs is an expert in doping defenses. Retrieved from: http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/aug/13/jacobs-is-an-expert-in-doping-defenses/
