Dino Laurenzi, Jr., the drug testing officer who collected the urine sample that resulted in a positive steroid test result for Ryan Braun, has responded to allegations that he sabotaged the doping sample. Laurenzi vehemently denied tampering with Braun’s sample. Furthermore, the WADA-accredited laboratory that analyzed the sample has confirmed that there was no evidence of tampering.
Braun accused the drug testing officer during a press conference convened shortly after he won his appeal against a 50-game steroid-related suspension. Braun suggested it would have been “extremely easy” for Laurenzi to tamper with his sample if he were motivated to do so.
“[T]hat’s why it’s so important to get it out of the hands of the only person in the world who knows whose sample it is,” said Braun. “There are a lot of things that we’ve heard about the collection process, the collector and some other people involved in the process that have certainly been concerning to us.”
Braun had implied that Laurenzi’s handling of the sample was suspicious since he did not ship the specimen on the same day it was collected. Many sportswriters have jumped on the bandwagon and accused the steroid tester of being sloppy and unprofessional in his role as a steroid testing officer.
The fact of the matter is that Laurenzi followed standard industry protocol, as implemented by his employer Comprehensive Drug Testing (CDT), by storing the specimen at home until FedEx could immediately ship it to a WADA-accredited laboratory.
Laurenzi, in a statement released by his attorney, described the details of the standard industry protocol in handling and safeguarding specimens for steroid testing:
CDT has instructed collectors since I began in 2005 that they should safeguard the samples in their homes until FedEx is able to immediately ship the sample to the laboratory, rather than having the samples sit for one day or more at a local FedEx office. The protocol has been in place since 2005 when I started with CDT and there have been other occasions when I have had to store samples in my home for at least one day, all without incident.
Travis Tygart, CEO of United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), and David Howman, director of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and Chris Guinty, vice president for the National Center for Drug-Free Sport, have all expressed support of the standard industry protocol followed by Laurenzi.
The anti-doping movement has been put on the defensive by sportswriters who have sided with Braun in stating that the MLB steroid policy is “fatally flawed”. If the MLB policy is flawed then the WADA code is equally flawed given that they all follow the same standard industry protocol.
The “flaw” that resulted in the overturning of Braun’s steroid suspension was merely a technicality arising from ambiguity in the language of MLB’s steroid policy.
MLB “Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program” specified that samples should be sent on the same day collected.
“Absent unusual circumstances, the specimens should be sent by FedEx to the Laboratory on the same day they are collected“
Shyam Das, the independent arbitrator in the case, did not feel the fact that Laurenzi followed standard industry protocol was relevant. The specimen was not shipped same-day. Thus, Das determined that the chain of custody (as outlined in MLB policy) was violated.
Source:
ESPN. (February 28, 2012). Statement from Dino Laurenzi Jr. Retrieved from http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7625756/statement-dino-laurenzi-jr-collected-samples-ryan-braun-case
