The British Olympic Association (BOA) should save itself a day in court and unilaterally rescind the lifetime ban on drug-taking that stands between Dwain Chambers and his ambition to compete in Beijing next month. It should do so not because it has “gone soft on drugs”, but because it has belatedly realised that its infamous bylaw is not merely misguided but self-defeating.

Why? Because if the anti-drugs authorities are going to stand even a fighting chance of winning the war on drugs, they need access to the information that can be provided only by those steeped in the insidious culture of doping in sport. Information on doping protocols and designer steroid manipulations. Information on supply chains and withdrawal procedures. Information on underground chemists and their criminal networks.

Even the Wada Code - a document that has been criticised for its inflexibility - contains incentives for the provision of intelligence by significantly reducing sanctions for cheats who provide chapter and verse on what they got up to. By stubbornly refusing to budge from its macho stance, the BOA is effectively cutting the supply of this information and, by implication, undermining the global battle against drug-taking in sport.

You doubt the validity of this claim? Well, let us consider Chambers's own case. Two months ago the disgraced sprinter asked Victor Conte, the man who masterminded his doping regime, to provide a letter to UK Sport detailing his drug usage. Chambers did so because he believed - as he had every right to - that this unilateral gesture might find favour with the sporting authorities and increase his chances of overturning his lifetime Olympic ban.

The letter was a revelation. Conte revealed that Chambers had not merely taken the designer steroid THG but had also used six other banned substances, including human growth hormone, EPO and modafinil, none of which were detected in drugs tests. He explained the ways in which the substances were ingested, the protocols adopted and the physiological reasoning behind a regime mind-boggling in its complexity and audacity.

The letter went on to detail the so-called “dodge and dive” strategy whereby athletes call their mobile phones until their message capacity is full, thus enabling them to claim to the testers that they did not get a message when they finally decide to make themselves available. Conte also revealed that athletes routinely provide incorrect information of their whereabouts, enabling them to take advantage of steroid use until the point where they have two missed tests. It is only then that they must be honest or risk a violation of the “three strikes” rule that has caught, among others, Christine Ohuruogu.

Few would deny that the letter is among the most revealing documents in the recent history of drug-taking in sport. It not only demonstrated the impotence of the testers but also provided vital clues as to how they might steal a temporary march on the cheats. It is understood that anti-doping authorities are already formulating new whereabouts procedures and testing methodologies - just the kind of thing that might strike fear into the hearts of aspiring drug cheats. It is detection that the dopers are afraid of, not sanctions that are effectively meaningless if they snare nobody except the careless and the unlucky.

The problem is that the courts may refuse to overturn the BOA's damaging bylaw. The judicial system is generally reluctant to intervene in the affairs of sporting institutions and the BOA will argue, legitimately, that Chambers knew about the lifetime consequences of his actions when he converted himself into a walking pharmacy. Drug-taking in sport is a branch of contract law and it is Chambers, not the BOA, who is in breach of contract.

But the reasons why the BOA must ditch its bylaw are practical, not legal. Throughout history it has been those on the inside of the doping culture who have equipped testers with their most valuable information, from the doctors who revealed the horrors of the East German system to the athletes and coaches who have lifted the lid on more recent scandals. Never forget that the Balco affair would not have come to light without the intervention of Trevor Graham, who provided the sample of THG that facilitated a testing procedure for the designer steroid.

All of us understand that drug-taking is pernicious and has many victims, not least the clean athletes who toil without acclaim. But bemoaning the insidiousness of drug-taking - however eloquently - will not make it go away. We need a sophisticated approach to doping in sport, which must include sentencing that is both tougher and more flexible. I will be cheering if Chambers is given the green light to compete in Beijing, but that does not mean I am soft on drugs.