I do not often post in these forums but there is a lot of pseudo science and misinformation being thrown around these forums about Clenbuterol.
I have a medical background and have had a look into some of the evidence behind Clenbuterol and performance enhancement.
First off Clenbuterol is an oral beta-2 agonist. At it's core, although with varied pharmacokinetics, it has similar properties as Salbutamol or Ventolin as it is more commonly known. Ventolin is used for it's bronchodilator effect, that is opening of the smooth muscle in the airways to help with breathing during asthma flares. The benefits of a puffer is that it has localised action with minimal systemic effect. However, most people who have had Ventolin would recognise there is some systemic absorption that manifests as tachycardia or feelings of agitation. Clenbuterol has this effect on a systemic level creating a sympathomimetic effect that is quite similar to that of cocaine. This includes tachycardia, heightened levels of anxiety and increased basal metabolic rate. Given this I'm not why it's so difficult to understand why it would be cut with cocaine to mimic or propagate its effects.
Furthermore, Clenbuterol is used mainly for management of asthma in horses, as the coordination required for effective inhalation of inhaled beta-agonists would make it impractical as a management tool. As I'm sure you can appreciate this makes it not only legal in Australia but readily accessible for anyone that has contacts in either the horse racing industry or veterinary clinics but also large quantities given equine dosing is substantial compared to that in humans. Cocaine on the other hand comes exclusively from the coca plant and therefore must be imported from regions such as South America. Pragmatically you can imagine why it would be easier to cut with Clenbuterol then to access large amounts of cocaine.
Finally, discussing Clenbuterol as a performance enhancer for athletes is not as clear cut as it may seem. Although it is proven to have some anabolic effects in certain muscle groups within different species, there is limited proof that this directly leads to performance enhancement. I found one trial in 1995 that concluded it could not confirm muscle enhancement in young men or athletic performance enhancement in young men. There have also been studies that it does not increase performance in horses but actually decreases aerobic capabilities. I will post links to these studies below. Although the animal model is not direct, the ethics of control trials in humans means we might see the testing required to give us a good answer. Having said that its potential to promote muscle growth is definitely enough to warrant a ban on WADAs list.
So given this, it makes a lot of sense to cut Clenbuterol with cocaine. The way the Collingwood team handled this situation I actually found to be very open, accountable and professional. Maybe it's this that is so 'unpalatable' for certain football fans.
Links:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/7711351/
http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/12471305
I'm impressed you reworded some articles to support your argument but I dont buy it and how very convenient there is no sample to coroberate this supposed slam dunk of what happened...
So, l will leave you with one question. Was there a positive benzoylecgonine metabolite to accompany this positive Clenbuterol result you seem to know is an absolute...?