(02-05-2013 12:05 PM)TribeNiner Wrote:  I just had a conversation at a meet and greet with Howard Jacobs (the premier doping lawyer in the country) and we discussed many of these issues. He is giving a talk at 3:30 which I am attending that could shed more light on the subject, but some interesting tidbits from the conversation:

-Only about 1/6 of the more than one hundred cases he has handled have been what he would term "intentional cheating." Most others were accidental.

-It is a strict liability offense for most cases, so even if medically a banned substance doesn't actually assist you (deer antler spray), the fact that it contains a banned substance is enough. This is alo interesting from an attempt to cheat even if it is ineffective standpoint.

-He believes that the rules in the NFL (and other sports that operate in the same way) will change because, as it stands now, a violation for a tainted vitamin (accidental) is the same specified suspension (4 games) for a first time offense as injecting HGH. Circumstances don't currently matter, but he believes that will change.

-Interesting to note that, though there are different levels of testing, etc., they almost all use the same labs for testing. The NBA is a bit of an exception, as they use some of their own labs.

I'll post more if anything interesting comes out of his later talk (as long as it doesn't give anything away, of course).