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Britain's Lee Westwood said golf's failure to produce a common list of banned drugs was `ridiculous' and a player's reputation could be wrecked by an innocent mistake.
The US PGA Tour and the European Tour begin drug testing on July 1 but have different lists of banned substances.
"I can't understand why everybody can't get together and have one [worldwide] list and then you won't get somebody being tripped up," Westwood told reporters at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
"Somebody's reputation is going to be really tainted just because of an innocent mistake," added the 34-year-old Englishman after a second-round 68 put him in title contention on 134, six under par.
"There are more on our banned list [in Europe]. So it's more likely to be an American player coming over and playing in the British Open and getting caught out by something perfectly innocent. They need to get together. I can't understand why we can't have a list that covers everybody. It's ridiculous."
Westwood discovered the discrepancies through personal experience.
"I'm asthmatic and take salbutamol. That's illegal in Europe and legal here. I spoke to the doctor here and he said you don't need a TUE [temporary use exemption] here.
"There might be somebody taking something on this tour that's not acceptable in Europe. There might be an asthmatic here that doesn't realise it's banned in Europe and it's too late once you've tested positive."
Despite his concerns, Westwood said the players believed golf's relatively late move into drug testing was the right decision.
"I think we are all for drug testing," he said. "The reputation of the sport is at stake and we are one of the few sports that didn't have drug testing.
"I don't really think there are any drugs that can help golfers too much because it's separate to everything else. It's not really that physically a demanding sport compared to... say sprinting or baseball."
Westwood joked there was one substance he would never give up.
"Thankfully, as far as I can tell, alcohol is not on the banned list so I'm all right. If they ban vodka I'm giving up golf."
