Mad Dogs and Englishmen –
July 6, 2019 – The GBGB’s findings were part of a worrying trend. A month earlier, two Scottish trainers, Andrew Meek and James Cairns, had been disqualified indefinitely after cocaine positives. (Being disqualified forbids you from even attending a greyhound race.) “We’re finding more and more greyhounds testing positive for cocaine and its metabolites,” says Duncan Gibson, the GBGB’s welfare and integrity manager. Fifteen years ago, one cocaine positive a year would be a lot. These days they are finding six to ten.
Cocaine is banned in the world of greyhound racing for the same reason it is banned in the world of human racing. Greyhounds are athletes. A greyhound on cocaine will respond the same way you would: the drug will cause its heart rate to leap, pumping blood more urgently around the body in a bid to get more oxygen into the system; its blood pressure will rise; it will probably run faster. In short, it might be more likely to win a race.
