A Wada anonymous survey in 2013 (involving 2000 athletes) found an estimated 29 per cent at the 2011 world championships had doped in the previous year. Even the biological passport, supposed to be a breakthrough by highlighting sudden changes in body chemistry seems to have been sidestepped by micro-dosing. That is the art of supplies of the banned substance which give a performance boost but in quantities too small and too quick to detect.
Wada's global budget in 2015 was US$30 million - less than the net worth of, say, a successful athlete who has doped, escaped detection and earned big money. The global sports industry has been estimated at US$400 billion, so even the US$250m-US$400m that a body such as Wada would need to be effective (and who pays?) is dwarfed.
Some misguided souls even call for the end of the war on drugs. That should never be permitted but what to do next? Bolt's entreaty seems destined to fall on deaf ears and it's a moot point whether doping will kill track and field - after all, the Tour de France continues even though most think it is still riddled with drugs.
Kasvina's positive test is a rare win, so it may be Howman's 'sue them' call is the way to go. If there is no stomach or international alignment for jail time for drugs cheats, then lawsuits might do - with athletes suing the cheats for income they would have earned had it not been for being done out of medals.
Take New Zealand's own Rebecca Perrott, for instance. A world-class swimmer at 15, she finished fourth at the 1976 Montreal Olympics in the women's 400m freestyle - a race won by East Germany's Petra Thumer in a world record time. Thumer later admitted using performance enhancing drugs.
An Olympic bronze medal (Perrott finished behind American Shirley Babashoff and 14-year-old Canadian Shannon Smith) may have no direct financial earnings attached to it but Perrott could reasonably claim loss of earnings in endorsements and other opportunities denied her.
A gold medal in a high-profile sport is worth plenty. Bolt himself is now said to be worth US$60m on the back of his achievements. Even those in lesser sports and with smaller profiles could claim hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Ironically, in 2005, 167 East German athletes - including swimmers - went to court for damages for being subjected to state-organised doping. They received cash settlements in 2007.
So the cheaters - albeit unknowingly for some, for sure - got a payout but those cheated out of medals get zip ... it's a crazy world.
What next? Will the vast number of Russian athletes banned from the Rio Olympics last year enjoy a state payout too? Admittedly, Russian authorities might be more inclined to show them what a firing squad looks like from the front or send them on a holiday to Chernobyl.
The Russian ban might represent the drugs police's greatest victory so far, along with Marion Jones and Lance Armstrong, but they are fighting a monster.
In an infamous survey of athletes from the 1980s, over 50 per cent said they'd take a substance that would win them a gold medal but would kill them in five years. Last year, the IOC revealed 45 athletes from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, including 23 medallists from Beijing 2008, had failed drug tests after stored samples were re-analysed with new technology.
That brought the number of retroactive drugs busts from both Olympics to 98 - athletes who competed knowing their samples might catch up with them but who took the drugs anyway.
Maybe the courtroom is the only way to go.
