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For a quarter century, Dr. Don Catlin, M.D. served as director of the UCLA Olympic Analytical Lab and grew it into the world’s largest testing facility of performance- enhancing drugs, testing for the NFL and NCAA among others. Today, he is focused on research and testing development at the Los Angeles based nonprofit organization Anti-Doping Research, Inc. Recently I had the pleasure to speak with the highly regarded Medical Doctor and Scientist, Dr.Don Catlin. Catlin has impeccable credentials when it comes to Steroid testing and research. His research has made it possible to crack a host of designer steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs created to avoid detection. This is not an armchair quarterback, this is a man who has seen it all, tested it all and has been privy to all sorts of information the public has not.
MRC: In the pre fight negotiations for the Mayweather – Pacquiao fight so much has been discussed in the past weeks on whether or not urine tests alone are sufficient for detecting Performance Enhancing Drugs. What are your thoughts on that?
DC: It used to be sufficient but not anymore. You need blood tests as well. You have to understand the context here. Drug Testing goes on all year round but all year round they are not testing two of the best fighters in the world who are going to be going after each other. That makes it very different more like THE OLYMPICS. When we go to the Olympics in another month there is going to be a full lab for blood tests and urine tests and everyone is going to be fully prepared to do the best possible testing. That’s what I would say ought to go on for a bout of this magnitude.
MRC: In your opinion instituting an effective anti doping testing program would have to include what key components?
DC: Urine and blood tests and the menu of things they test for should be as full as it can be and even fuller than that. Some broader wave. Tests need to be random and unannounced. Keep in mind we now have a Growth Hormone test but it hasn’t caught anybody. People are not terribly excited about a GH test that doesn’t catch anybody. They don’t know whether that is because the test is not good or because no one is using Growth Hormone. Well, no one believes that no one is using Growth Hormone. You have to go after the blood. The things you are after in the blood are Erythrpoeitin (EPO) and the whole family of drugs like it. You have to use blood tests if you want to detect Mircera and HGH.
MRC: So tests need to be random?
DC: Yes. Random and unannounced. You need to have the right tests available at any time. Now, that’s because you give somebody an hour or a few hours or a day’s notice and they’ll beat you.
MRC: Can traces of a PED (Performance Enhancing Drugs) be flushed out of one’s system rather quickly?
DC: Yes
MRC: Is it a matter of hours or days- depending on the drug?
DC: It can be a matter of hours. It depends on which drug. There are two sides here, the testers and the dopers. Dopers may have very good information and good intelligence. They probably have many people around them. They may not be Nobel Prize Winners but they know their stuff. They know how to keep them clean (the athletes).
Bad guys have it all figured out. They’re ten times smarter than the good guys. Most people don’t think evil. They don’t believe all this stuff. Let me tell you, its all true.
MRC: Another thing that has come up is the post fight test. Is it possible to get the benefits of a PED without having traces of it in your system?
DC: Yes that’s possible but it depends on the drug and the timing. It’s a complicated question.
Boxing has never done anything like this (Olympic Style testing). If its business as usual (Current testing in Place) you just might as well forget it. I think it’s marvelous (Possibility of Olympic Style testing). It’s about time. Nobody believes boxing is clean. It’s not.
Special Thanks to Dr. Catlin, who took time out of his busy schedule to do this interview.
For a quarter century, Dr. Don Catlin, M.D. served as director of the UCLA Olympic Analytical Lab and grew it into the world’s largest testing facility of performance- enhancing drugs, testing for the NFL and NCAA among others. Today, he is focused on research and testing development at the Los Angeles based nonprofit organization Anti-Doping Research, Inc. Recently I had the pleasure to speak with the highly regarded Medical Doctor and Scientist, Dr.Don Catlin. Catlin has impeccable credentials when it comes to Steroid testing and research. His research has made it possible to crack a host of designer steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs created to avoid detection. This is not an armchair quarterback, this is a man who has seen it all, tested it all and has been privy to all sorts of information the public has not.
MRC: In the pre fight negotiations for the Mayweather – Pacquiao fight so much has been discussed in the past weeks on whether or not urine tests alone are sufficient for detecting Performance Enhancing Drugs. What are your thoughts on that?
DC: It used to be sufficient but not anymore. You need blood tests as well. You have to understand the context here. Drug Testing goes on all year round but all year round they are not testing two of the best fighters in the world who are going to be going after each other. That makes it very different more like THE OLYMPICS. When we go to the Olympics in another month there is going to be a full lab for blood tests and urine tests and everyone is going to be fully prepared to do the best possible testing. That’s what I would say ought to go on for a bout of this magnitude.
MRC: In your opinion instituting an effective anti doping testing program would have to include what key components?
DC: Urine and blood tests and the menu of things they test for should be as full as it can be and even fuller than that. Some broader wave. Tests need to be random and unannounced. Keep in mind we now have a Growth Hormone test but it hasn’t caught anybody. People are not terribly excited about a GH test that doesn’t catch anybody. They don’t know whether that is because the test is not good or because no one is using Growth Hormone. Well, no one believes that no one is using Growth Hormone. You have to go after the blood. The things you are after in the blood are Erythrpoeitin (EPO) and the whole family of drugs like it. You have to use blood tests if you want to detect Mircera and HGH.
MRC: So tests need to be random?
DC: Yes. Random and unannounced. You need to have the right tests available at any time. Now, that’s because you give somebody an hour or a few hours or a day’s notice and they’ll beat you.
MRC: Can traces of a PED (Performance Enhancing Drugs) be flushed out of one’s system rather quickly?
DC: Yes
MRC: Is it a matter of hours or days- depending on the drug?
DC: It can be a matter of hours. It depends on which drug. There are two sides here, the testers and the dopers. Dopers may have very good information and good intelligence. They probably have many people around them. They may not be Nobel Prize Winners but they know their stuff. They know how to keep them clean (the athletes).
Bad guys have it all figured out. They’re ten times smarter than the good guys. Most people don’t think evil. They don’t believe all this stuff. Let me tell you, its all true.
MRC: Another thing that has come up is the post fight test. Is it possible to get the benefits of a PED without having traces of it in your system?
DC: Yes that’s possible but it depends on the drug and the timing. It’s a complicated question.
Boxing has never done anything like this (Olympic Style testing). If its business as usual (Current testing in Place) you just might as well forget it. I think it’s marvelous (Possibility of Olympic Style testing). It’s about time. Nobody believes boxing is clean. It’s not.
Special Thanks to Dr. Catlin, who took time out of his busy schedule to do this interview.
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