From Matt Hegarty, DRF 6/14/12
Ten horses in Louisiana have tested positive over the past week for a highly potent
opiate painkiller after a testing lab in the state put in place a method to detect
the drug, the director of the laboratory, Dr. Steven Barker, said on Thursday.
The horses have all tested positive for dermorphin, an opioid that is produced
naturally as a secretion by South American frogs but can also be produced
synthetically, Barker said. The drug is believed to have 30 to 40 times more potency
than morphine in similar concentrations, and the recommended penalty for a positive
of the drug is a minimum one-year suspension, loss of purse, and $10,000 fine.
The positives for dermorphin were first reported by NOLA.com, a New Orleans news
site. According to the report, the horses that have tested positive include a mix of
Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds, racing at Delta Downs, Evangeline Downs, and
Louisiana Downs.
Barker said that he implemented a new method to detect dermorphin in the past two
weeks at his own lab at Louisiana State University after a lab in Colorado shared the
method with him so that his lab could verify the findings in 15 split samples that
had previously tested positive for the drug. Barker said that all of the split
samples came from Oklahoma.
Mary Ann Roberts, the staff attorney for the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission, would
not confirm or deny that the commission had been notified about 15 positives for
dermorphin.
"We don't comment on any pending cases, so there's nothing I can verify for you right
now," Roberts said.
The report on NOLA.com said that the Louisiana Racing Commission has not yet released
the names of the trainers who tested positive for the drug. Charles Gardiner, the
commission's executive director, had not returned a phone call by late afternoon.
Barker said that he believed that the drug was being manufactured synthetically due
to the high doses that would be required to produce an effect in a racehorse.
"It's hard to imagine someone is making this much by squeezing the backs of frogs,"
Barker said. "It'd be a lot easier to synthesize it."
Because the LSU lab immediately began finding positives after putting the test in
place, it's likely that trainers have been using the drug for some time.
\"My horse has a positive to dermorphine? Why, that\'s impossible. I\'m sure a frog must have gotten into the stall ....\"
Demorphin is 40% more powerful than morphine. Conotoxin, from the venom of the cone
snail, is supposedly 100% stronger than morphine, the one drawback being it would be
harder to explain how the cone snail got in the horse\'s stall as opposed to the frog.
The frog story - even though not a locally-native species - could fly in Louisiana.
Hard to do on the plains of Oklahoma.
BTW, the \"more powerful than morphine thing\" really relates more to how the drug behaves in the body, attachment and affinity to certain cellular receptors, rather than as a relative pain-relief scale/measure.
That blows. Looks like we need more honest Oats-feeding horsemen like Jamie Ness in Louisiana, eh Rick?
sekrah Wrote:
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> That blows. Looks like we need more honest
> Oats-feeding horsemen like Jamie Ness in
> Louisiana, eh Rick?
Oh, did any trainer names get released yet? When was Ness
in Louisiana, I wonder?
Never said Ness was hay, oats, etc. That\'s getting pretty
tiresome, anyway. Winning trainers push the envelope, take
every legal edge they can get. Really -- who doesn\'t know this?
If you want to convince me of your commitment to hay, oats and
water, buy some horses, call Jack Van Berg and have him train
for you...and start writing checks. Lots of checks.
Until then, wake me when they find something illegal on Ness.