Taking from Wikipedia…
Lewis was among the named athletes and Exum's documents revealed that at the 1988 Olympics trials he had three positive results on a combined test for
pseudoephedrine,
ephedrine, and
phenylpropanolamine. All were and are banned in sport due to their activity as
stimulants, though at the time all three were available
over-the-counter as
dietary supplements or treatments for
coldand
allergy symptoms. The combined concentrations of these stimulants detected in the three successive tests were 2
ppm, 4 ppm and 6 ppm.
Lewis defended himself, claiming that he had accidentally consumed the banned substances. After the supplements that he had taken were analyzed to prove his claims, the USOC accepted his claim of inadvertent use, since a dietary supplement he ingested was found to contain
ma huang, the Chinese name for
Ephedra sinica, an ephedrine-bearing plant which was then marketed as a
weight loss aid.
The highest level of the stimulants Lewis recorded was 6 ppm, which was regarded as a positive test in 1988 but is now regarded as negative test. The acceptable level has been raised to ten parts per million for ephedrine and twenty-five parts per million for other substances. According to the IOC rules at the time, positive tests with levels lower than 10 ppm were cause of further investigation but not immediate ban. Neal Benowitz, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco who is an expert on ephedrine and other stimulants, agreed in 2003 that "These [levels] are what you'd see from someone taking cold or allergy medicines and are unlikely to have any effect on performance."
Also just in general lol @ Johnson going all anti doping, because he was caught twice, both times for systematic abuse. Plus when he became Gaddafi’s kid’s PT and then the kid subsequently was caught doping.
www.nbcsports.com
