Chapter[ X. Review of the Major League Baseball Joint Drug Prevention and
Treatment Program ]
Section[ B. 4. Adherence to Best Practices as They Develop ]
4. Adherence to Best Practices as They Develop
In the context of a drug testing program, “best practices” encompass a wide array
of issues. Adherence to best practices is important because administering any drug testing
program effectively is a daunting challenge. Negative test results do not assure that the testing
program has stopped athletes from using prohibited substances; as the Commissioner’s
consultant Dr. Gary Green from UCLA has noted, negative test results also might be explained
by the use of prohibited substances that cannot be detected, because the substance was
eliminated from the body before the test, by collection failures, by the presence of a prohibited
substance below testing tolerances, or by the athlete’s efforts to evade detection.
Selected issues of particular significance to Major League Baseball’s joint
program are reviewed below.
534 National Basketball Players Association Collective Bargaining Agreement, Art. 33
§ 6(a) (1999).
535 Collective Bargaining Agreement Between National Hockey League and National
Hockey League Players Association, Art. 47 § 47.6 (2005).
536 In a recent article, for example, it was reported that the NFL program does not, in
practice, test players on game days and that “at least one day of testing almost always tak[es]
place the day after a game.” See Michael S. Schmidt, Doping Experts Find Loopholes Beyond
Baseball, N.Y. Times, Dec. 11, 2007.
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