Oldman said:
Sorry to edit somewhat but I think your own DNA, blood and the like is exactly that...yours. It's not a controlled substance unless you intend to sell it to someone else and not pay taxes. Removing, storing and transporting their own blood only would become illegal if they violated FDA or other regulations on where you took it. Look to the financial arrangements to trip up the cheaters; someone had to be paid to transport the stuff.
i agree that the payments to the transporters (and to the suppliers and the medical staff) are key.
i admit that i am pretty ignorant about the laws surrounding biological products. so i'm just guessing based on my experience with similar issues in other areas. i do know that, in the US, one does not own their DNA or biological products for patent purposes at least (there was a case a few years back where a guy whose blood was somehow resistant to HIV, i forget how exactly, lost the case when he tried to challenge his doctors' having secured a patent on his blood without his permission).
and it's also pretty clear that, in the US, controlled substances are controlled whether you intend to distribute, or use them, or not. paying taxes on them is irrelevant. for instance, the beer in your fridge is a controlled substance and you will be held responsible if your beer finds its way into a minor's hands.
plus, even if you are authorized to possess a controlled substance, any activity outside of the scope of your authorization will violate the law. so if you have a prescription for vicodin, you will be breaking the law if you allow anyone else to have any, even just giving your spouse one pill for a really bad headache or something.
the blood in your body is probably not a controlled substance, but i have a feeling that as soon as it comes out of your body, there are all kinds of regulations that attach to it, as well as to the disposal of it--i know that disposal of medical and biological wastes is pretty heavily regulated here. for instance, it is illegal to dump blood down the drain or throw items tainted with human blood, like iv bags or even cotton swabs, into the everyday garbage (obviously people do it all the time, but it is still illegal).
transportation and possession of pharmaceuticals is usually not questioned in small quantities that are presumably for personal use, but if you are challenged and cannot prove you have a prescription, you will be in trouble. but since team lance had doctors on staff, getting the prescriptions is probably not the problem; the problem probably lies in the doctors writing the prescriptions knowing that they were medically unnecessary and would be used in prohibited way, as well as the black market distribution of the PEDS to other cyclists. take the example of floyd getting the EPO from lance at lance's house--right there lance is, if it is true, guilty of the illegal distribution of pharmaceuticals and controlled substances (unless he is a licensed pharmacist), even if he originally procured the PEDS "legally" via a prescription, which was filled by a pharmacist. in most states, that's enough to get you some jail time by itself.
one thing that really surprises me is that is seems pretty clear that lance and radio shack topped off on the rest day--given all that is at stake and happening right now, the hubris of that is really shocking. it really makes me wonder if lance isn't a sociopath or something.
finally, i don't really think getting people to "turn state's evidence" is going to be all that hard. lance is not a nice guy. he's hurt and ruined a lot of people over the years. and loyalty based on fear is a pretty fragile thing, as every headless monarch knows.