More MMA Drugs

Now Melvin Guillard gets busted for recreational drug use, but this time it's cocaine, which actually could enhance your performance, both as a stimulant and as a pain killer.

Cocaine's effects are relatively short-lived, however, and my best guess would be that Guillard was partying it up in Vegas rather than trying to give himself a physical edge (like he needs one?).

These drug tests detect the presence of metabolites, not the presence of the drug itself, and while cocain'es metabolites don't last nearly as long as marijuana, it's still unclear whether any was actively effecting him at the time of the test.

Granted, knowing they are going to be tested for these substances it's beyond retarded that these fighters put their careers in jeopardy by not staying clean for a reasonable time before the fight.

In my view there are 3 main problems with the doping regime in sports. First, the innane inclusion of purely recreational drugs like marijuana, which have no demonstrable performance enhancing properties. Second, the fact that you're testing for byproducts, so in many cases it's hard to know whether the chemical in question is still in the atheletes system and able to affect his/her performance. Lastly, the decision of which drugs or supplements are unacceptable inevitably seems somewhat arbitrary. There are plenty of supplements that are widely considered performance enhancing but completely legal to use. The reasoning behind steroid prohibition has more to do with their percieved danger than performance enhancement. And as science advances the detection and regulation regimes will always lag slightly behind the latest doping methods. In the end (many years from now)I suspect people are going to accept that atheletes have not been "natural" for a long time and will just let them do whatever they want.