New legislation has been passed by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board severely restricting the use of legal drugs on racehorses and requiring trainers to report what treatments they give their horses. Earlier this year, Aqueduct Racetrack lost 21 racehorses and it is likely that many of these deaths were due to inappropriate prescription drug use. These are the most restrictive rules in the field yet, in response to veterinarian records indicating frequent injections of corticosteroids directly preceding the races at Aqueduct which resulted in the horses losing their lives. New policies place more distance between when a horse is injected with corticosteroids and when it races. They also require previous horse owners to disclose all steroid injections within the past thirty days to prospective buyers.
This instance has put corticosteroids in the spotlight as a heavily and inappropriately used drugs responsible for the deaths of horses via their owners's use. However, one must wonder how these drugs were so readily available in the first place. Due to globalization, drugs are available in the masses: and this can only have negative results for those who have no medical need of them. Drugs can be as lethal as guns, and so these horse owners have committed crimes with corticosteroids equal to shooting the horses that they prize in races. Since it is unclear where the corticosteroids in the article come from, they might be from a foreign country and if so were likely purchased inexpensively by the horse owners, at the expense of those working in drug manufacturing plants. Such use of a commodity shows the negative impact of labor globalization through its ability to manifest it in large quantities without firm regulation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/12/sports/new-york-state-tightens-drug-rules-for-racehorses.html
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