I'm going to ignore all the bad stuff thats been happening in Jamaica thats I've already written about on numerous occassions, after all no matter how much more new news comes up you cant constantly beat the same old dead horse. Instead I am going to focus on something different, something to get us to think a little bit. Now we all know that champs just came and went and the subsequent Carifta games have also come and gone and a man by the name of Dr. Paul Wright has made an interesting call for athletes who participate in these championships to be tested for drug use.

Now of course many people who hear about this suggestion will simply scoff at it and say that it is silly, afterall what kind of athlete would require the use of performancing enhancing substances at the high school level, after all its not as if high school level athletics is the high point of an athletes career is it? And then there is the cost factor, I mean what school can afford to put an athlete under a drug programme, especially sincethere is no amount of money to be made from Amateur Athletics.

But when one talks about all of that, one forgets one thing and that is school pride. Almost every Jamaican who has finished high school (especially those who went to traditional high schools) has a level of a high school pride that in some instances outshines even our national pride. I bet you if you ask any Jamaican about their education, even if they have attained a Masters degree or even a Phd they will ensure that they tell you that they went to ____High School/College and will also volunteer information about how good their school does in sports. Its a part of what growing up in Jamaica is all about, that is the reason why high schools such as Wolmers, KC, Calabar have alumni associations all over America, Europe and even Asia. I bet you that Wolmers has more alumni associations setup all around the world than even the UWI (the premier tertiary institution in the Caribbean).

**Taken from Jamaica Observer

It is these Old Boys and Old Girls associations who can possibly fund these athletes success for the simple pride of saying that "Their school won ____ this year". It may sound really simple but lets expand our view a bit. In the recent Carifta trials Jamaica netted 72 medals, 32 of which were Gold medals. Our closest competitor had 32 medals less than us... So yes our gold medals alone puts us at the top of the competition. One can also add to this the fact that our athletes even at this level have also been record breakers. This is not to say however that Jamaica isn't just a country full of brilliant and talented athletes, after all there have rarely been situations where Jamaican athletes were caught doping. But they exist, and in a situation where more and more we find ourselves under the eye of the international media and under increased scrutiny from bodies such as the World Anti Doping Agency, it is important that we can prove that at all times our athletes are clean, after all we dont want anymore bad news.

**Taken from Jamaica Gleaner

There is one more reason why I also think it is important to probably take heed to the words of Dr. Wright and that is the experience of it all. If you look back at the Beijing games, there was a situation that occured where Jamaican athletes complained of being subject to exessive drug testing. Some complained of being tested over 4 or 5 times, and alot of them simply were not used to this treatment, however it is important to make these athletes know what is expected of them and what kind of restrictions they will have to be placed under before they can attempt to compete at the international level.

I therefore believe it is important to take a listen to what was stated by Dr. Wright, this way we can say that our athletes in fact fall under proper testing regimes, so we can lift up that final veil of international scrutiny that we fall under that says that we dont test our athletes properly at all levels. It would be a good move to improve the view of the Jamaica Anti Doping Commission and our athletes at all levels.