Barry Lew another positive

[trish]

Subcutaneous ketamine infusion• Starting dose: 50-150 mg/24 hours• Review daily, increase dose in 50-100 mg increments• Usual dose range: 50-600 mg/24 hours
Hi Jaimie / Dot . This is the dose range for humans . A horse would easilly cop 200mg . Ketamine is very effective in very small doses injected straight into the painfull area and it is quickly excreted from the body so 1 nano gram is not as minute as first thought

[Triple V]

Subcutaneous ketamine infusion• Starting dose: 50-150 mg/24 hours• Review daily, increase dose in 50-100 mg increments• Usual dose range: 50-600 mg/24 hours
Hi Jaimie / Dot . This is the dose range for humans . A horse would easilly cop 200mg . Ketamine is very effective in very small doses injected straight into the painfull area and it is quickly excreted from the body so 1 nano gram is not as minute as first thought

[VVV] It actually doesn't work that way Trish. The amount needed to subdue a human, otherwise that which crazy people take for God only knows what reasons...would kill 20 horses.

[barney]

Ketamine was used as a battlefield anaesthetic widely up until the Vietnam war. Was also mixed with speed by the melbourne gangsters to produce a fairly cheap pill with unpredictable side effects

[trish]

Hi Jaimie . From what I understand , Ketamine is used usually in conjunction with other drugs and the dosage table in front of me says that Ketamine should be used in most cases at a rate of 2mg per kilogram . Thats 800-1000mg on most horses , but If YOUR right , that adds substantial weight to the argument that the nano grams found was not the drop in the ocean that everyone is crying about .

[Triple V]

Hi Jaimie . From what I understand , Ketamine is used usually in conjunction with other drugs and the dosage table in front of me says that Ketamine should be used in most cases at a rate of 2mg per kilogram . Thats 800-1000mg on most horses , but If YOUR right , that adds substantial weight to the argument that the nano grams found was not the drop in the ocean that everyone is crying about .

[VVV] G'day Trish,
I have wracked my brain & looked high & low and I am not aware of any substance & nor could I even find one drug which, when present at a 1 billionth of 1 gram level, is able to exert any pharmacological effect at all. (I could not locate any useful information on it but perhaps an Opioid wrecking ball like Etorphine might be the one notable exception?).
Ultimately I think this one will be challenged (I'd be surprised if Barry doesn't do so) and I think it will eventually be called as a straight out contamination positive...i.e. it was an infinitely minute amount that was picked up by the horse maybe via ingested excretions of another horse that contaminated hay/feed, another horse that had itself been given the drug in question. I reckon this has rough equivalents in Tasmania where from time to time they will get Morphine positives because horses down there inadvertantly ingest Opium Poppies/seeds in their Hay.
Further, I think maybe the NSW Stewards already know or suspect this contamination aspect is most likely the case too, but the impractical/outdated/less than pragmatic way the current rules are written basically leaves them with their hands tied.
In this day & age it is absolutely absurd that we do not have proper thresholds in place that would serve to not only catch the genuine wrongdoers but also absolve the innocent.
Jamming up Trainers for 1 billionth of 1 gram of that which could not possibly be said to be present in a pharmacologically active amount & then giving them 12 months for their troubles is absolutely ridiculous. There has to be a better way.

[Triple V]

[VVV] Well, don't you think it's fair that someone speaks up on their behalf ?
The fact is that the rules as written are hopelessly out-dated and out of sync with the detection capabilities of the modern testing regime.
No more stark an example do we need than this case where a Trainer has scored 12 months for 1 bllionth of 1 gram of Norketamine...one that I understand all & sundry now suspect/believe is as a result of environmental contamination?
Surely it underlines that all pragmatism & reason, like Elvis, has long since left the building?
The fact is the current unacceptable state of affairs allows for overtly harsh penalties to be visited upon Trainers who score therapeutic or environmental positives, positives for substances detected at levels which could not in any way, shape or form be determined by anyone, even the most jaundiced of onlookers, to be pharmacologically active. Whilst that may well be a fair thing as far as you're concerned, as far as I'm concerned it is far from it. The rules governing this particular aspect of racing need to be reviewed & where neccessary changed or if need be totally re-written so as to come into line with 21st century detection capabilities. Successive Administrations & their Regulatory arms on both a State and a National basis have for far too long placed this issue in the too hard basket. Enough is enough.