Pubdate: Sat, 08 Oct 2016
Source: Record, The (Kitchener, CN ON)
Copyright: 2016 Metroland Media Group Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.therecord.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/225
Author: Sheryl Ubelacker
Page: C6

SWAPPING SPIT: CAN A KISS PASS COCAINE?

TORONTO - Is it possible to ingest cocaine by kissing someone who has
just snorted the powerful stimulant drug? Enough that its chemical
signature would show up on an athlete's doping tests?

That's reportedly what happened to Canadian pole vaulter Shawn Barber,
who tested positive for trace amounts of cocaine after winning the
Canadian title in Edmonton in early July.

Despite the result, the 22-year-old was allowed to compete at the Rio
Olympics after the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada
determined he had inadvertently absorbed the banned substance while
kissing a woman he'd met for a sexual tryst the night before the
national competition.

That raises the question of how someone could take in enough cocaine
by locking lips that the drug's chemical clues would show up in their
urine.

"There's a minimum amount you need to be exposed to," said Dr. David
Juurlink, head of clinical pharmacology and toxicology at Sunnybrook
Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.

"It's very difficult to imagine a scenario in which the exchange of
saliva through kissing transfers from one person to another a
sufficient amount of cocaine to result in a positive urine test," he
said.

Signs of cocaine, an extremely addictive drug derived from South
American grown coca leaves, shows up in the urine as a metabolite
after processing by the body.

"To detect a drug in urine, one has to be exposed to a sufficient
amount of it, and it has to be excreted by the kidneys," Juurlink
explained. "I can't say it's impossible, but it sounds extraordinarily
improbable to me."

However, in a media conference call with Barber, his lawyer said the
amount of cocaine metabolite detected in the 2015 world champion's
urine was "very small."

"Scientifically, the forensic toxicologist that looked at the case
understood and it was proved scientifically that it was impossible to
have taken this amount of cocaine intentionally," said Paul Greene.

"And in fact, Shawn took a hair sample test ... and voluntarily put
himself forth and was completely open from the beginning," Greene said.

"It was totally inadvertent ingestion ... and that's why the finding
was of no fault or negligence."

Greene also raised the 2009 case of French tennis player Richard
Gasquet. The then-23-year-old was cleared to resume playing following
a two-and-a-half-month ban from the circuit after he convinced the
International Tennis Federation's anti-doping tribunal that he had
ingested cocaine while kissing a woman he had met in a nightclub.

Gasquet tested positive in a urine sample after he pulled out of the
Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Fla., with a shoulder injury.

The Frenchman had been facing a lengthy ban for the tennis courts, but
the tribunal panel of three lawyers decided Gasquet had consumed no
more than "a grain of salt" amount of cocaine and a long ban would be
an injustice.
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