"Curtis L. Russell" wrote:
Just a question - are the USADA rules for testing more stringent (i.e.
more expensive) than that done 'locally'? If I want an employee
tested, I can run the bill anywhere from $ 15 to about $ 150, and this
is just from the smorgasbord of employee hiring tests, and of course
is largely based on urine tests, pricing based on the range of
substances tested for. Blood tests are a lot more expensive retail.

The testing panels done for employers look only for the "recreational"
drugs; cocaine, meth, pot, etc. They also use cheaper, easier methods for
testing, some of which have questionable reliability. We had a triage test
for "drugs of abuse" that was used at our hospital which was then backed up
further testing which took a much longer time to produce results. We found
the estimated accuracy, based on agreement with the back up testing, was
only around 60%, i.e only slightly better than flipping a coin. We have now
quit using that test.

For athlete testing it is necessary to look at a much greater range of
substances. Steroids, sympathomimetics, hormones, masking agents, etc. are
not tested for in the panels sold to employers. The increased size of the
market, lower number of agents tested for, lower accuracy methods used all
combine to make employment test much less expensive than athletic testing.
In addition, the testing done on athletes has really limited availability.
I found this out several years ago when a team I was involved with wished to
do testing on the members of the team for various reasons. At that point I
thought that it would be possible to just get a "IOC panel" of tested done.
Turns out that such an item is not available commercially. It would be
possible to get a commercial test done for a list of possible agents but
most are not group together into a panel of tests so each substance would
require order a separate test, each test costing in the range of $100 or so.
Even if we limited the testing to just the more common anabolics the price
got out of hand very quickly.

Mike Murray