There are many significant omissions, inaccuracies and falsehoods in Friday's Op Ed by Barry Irwin.
1. WHOA fully supports other legislation in addition to the Barr/Tonko bill. WHOA actively supports Congressman Pitts; Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act of 2015; HR 2641. USADA is named in both bills.
2. The Barr/Tonko bill has very meager and limited industry support: not “a strong industry coalition.” Some of the industry's most powerful groups are working against this legislation such as the NHBPA. Even groups that have promoted drug rules cited in the Barr/Tonko bill, the ARCI & the RMTC, are working against the legislation.
3. The group referred to by you as the “splinter group of purists” are the majority of WHOA members. WHOA was founded to ban raceday medication and thereby be in sync with international racing.
If we are truly banning drugs; then we must ban drugs. Ban means to prohibit or, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein: A drug is a drug is a drug.
Part of your message is correct: “American racing is stained by rampant drug use.” America needs to ban drugs like the majority of the rest of the world.
–George Strawbridge & Julia Jenkins
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