Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Justice for Mayfield?

This is an interesting story, in my opinion. Jeremy Mayfield, NASCAR driver, was cleared by a district court judge after supposedly testing positive for Methamphetamines. This has been going on for a little while, and I for one couldn't think of any real reason to overturn the lab results. However, as with any beaurocracy, mistakes happen and the influence on a case such as this one is hard to ignore. At some point, the "b" sample wasn't given the opportunity to be tested by an independent source, so I'm fairly sure that sealed the deal for Mayfield's exoneration.

I have a few questions though...

If the B sample also tested positive, then the lab didn't screw up with some clerical error. This had to be his pee, right?

I know they don't really test these guys all the time, so maybe in a case where a positive comes up they forget how to proceed and just go to the "b" sample. Granted, you'd think they would know what comes next. Is there a manual for this? How did they screw this up?

If the test was real, and his claims of a cocktail causing the false positive are true, why is the prosecution so adamant that it's not possible? As it turns out with a brief perusal of Wiki, Adderall returns a false positive on Meth. Granted, Mayfield could have edited the article, but still.

Next, how on earth could Mayfield be a Meth head? At what point in a three hour race, with a camera on him at all times, does he do a bump (that would be a dose for all you non-meth-taking people out there)? Is it built into his helmet? Maybe he has a "special" respirator or something. Not bloody likely. Most people go through withdrawal at some point, so it wouldn't be good to get all twitchy and anxious at 200 miles an hour.

There are some other tidbits in that piece about how he risks the safety of other drivers and fans, but seriously, I had my doubts from when the results came out. Despite the fact that some people don't consider these drivers athletes, sitting in a 120 degree cockpit in a fire suit for three hours is a tough task at 75, much less 190+.

The only thing I can't really get my suspicions around is why haven't any other drivers come out to stand by him. You'd think some of his former teammates might stick up for him. Being that is not the case (that I can find, at least) leaves, in my mind, the biggest reason to suspect the worst. I guess when he runs this weekend in Daytona, we won't necessarily get the truth, but maybe someone will check his helmet for a stash or something.

The funny thing is, he's going to get tested before the race, and if he's still on Adderall...

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