American masters needn’t worry about being drug-tested at domestic meets. USATF has no budget for it. But if lightning strikes while you’re at a WMA world or European masters meet, and you’re asked to relieve yourself in a labeled bottle, it’s good to know what’s kosher. So World Masters Athletics has teamed with an outfit that lists banned substances on the WADA list. Stan Perkins, the Aussie who acts as WMA drug czar, writes about the proMASTERs-FINDEX, and says: “We are confident the list will prove beneficial to Masters Athletes’ and coaches.”

Here’s the official WMA announcement:

WELCOME TO proMASTERS-FINDEX
Immediately prior to the conduct of the WMA World Indoor Championships 2008 held at Clermont Ferrand, France, a specially appointed WMA Committee met over two days to consider the drafting of a specific WMA Anti-Doping Code. One of the key outcomes of that meeting was the adoption of proMASTERs-FINDEX as an easy reference guide to the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) ‘prohibited substances’ list.
Developed in Europe, the proMASTERs-FINDEX is an alphabetical listing of substances that are on the WADA prohibited list that includes an easily recognizable colour coding that defines the classification of the various substances. The list is based on the 2007 Prohibited List and is expected to be upgraded annually when WADA releases its annual listing.
This listing provides athletes and coaches an opportunity to quickly check on any substances to verify their status within the sport of athletics. Care must be taken to ensure that the correct spelling of the substance is applied to prevent errors. The listing is for reference purposes only and has no legal validity. However the listing does overcome one of the major difficulties with the WADA listing which lists substances according to their category rather than their spelling.
WMA is most grateful to the EVAA and the authors of the proMASTERs-FINDEX list for permitting the use of the list on our website. We are confident the list will prove beneficial to Masters Athletes’ and coaches.
Stan Perkins
Chairman, WMA Anti-Doping and Medical Committee!

Of course, this is an outgrowth of the European (and mainly German) obsession over doping. Sure, people cheat. But more innocents get snared for taking necessary quality-of-life drugs than guilty parties are nailed for steroid abuse. It’s the truth.
Fortunately, some have a sense of humor about the issue.
Canadian masters official, journalist and photographer Doug Smith, who alerted me to the new online index, writes:
“I could never understand why Cannabis is considered a performance enhancing substance. Being unable to move a muscle with a monstrous craving for cookies and Jimi Hendrix doesn’t lend itself to faster track times! Well, that’s what I heard anyway.”
Just for giggles, I entered “hyaluronic acid” and then “hyaluronan” in the findex (basically a search engine), and both produced this reply: “The substance you were looking for seems not to be prohibited.”
Whew! That’s good news for Sprint Force America, which is being sponsored by the maker of Euflexxa, which is hyaluronan — the drug for knee arthritis.
I also looked up vodka, but it crashed the system. Sorry.