Lamont Peterson was a walking Alpha Course for those of us who believe that boxing saves far more lives than it wrecks. He was 10 when his father was jailed and his mother abandoned him and his brother Anthony to the streets and shelters of Washington DC. The pair slept on park benches and in abandoned cars; sometimes they even walked all night until the sun came up.

Boxing staged an intervention. Barry Hunter, a local trainer, spotted them coming out of a shelter and rescued them. He was still by Peterson's side in 2011 when he beat Amir Khan to become the WBA and IBF light-welterweight champion of the world.

It sounded too good to be true. It was. Before his rematch with Khan in May 2012, Peterson tested positive after injecting testosterone pellets in his hip. The fight was scrapped and he was called "a disgrace" by Khan's promoters Golden Boy.

A disgrace – but also a money-making opportunity. Last week, Peterson signed for Golden Boy. Later this month he will fight Kendall Holt for his IBF world title. As Peterson's publicist Andre Johnson wryly noted: "What a difference a year makes."

The WBA stripped Peterson of his title. However, the IBF – staggeringly – found that Peterson's "therapeutic use of the hormone" was "not for the purpose of performance enhancement". That, apparently, was just a happy by-product – like swallowing three Viagra tablets for the hell of it and finding the elasticity of your underpants being unexpectedly put to the test.

But given that the ratio of Peterson's testosterone to epitestosterone level was 3.77:1, when the usual ratio is 1:1, enhancing performance is exactly what it did. No wonder Khan, who was hit with 188 power punches by Peterson according to CompuBox, said: "I certainly hope he is punished hard. He had no respect for me as a fellow fighter, for himself, or for boxing."

Fat chance. But this is not just about Lamont Peterson. It is also about other world champions – Erik Morales, Antonio Tarver – who have tested positive in the past year. And, more broadly, it is about boxing itself.

Anyone who spends time in a boxing gym will see the direction and discipline it provides to those who otherwise would have none. The Ingle gym in Sheffield used to be sent the yobbos and wastrels that social services could not handle. None of them became world champions but a great many did a handbrake 180 with their lives. Every gym has Identikit stories.

But given boxing's essence involves hitting an opponent – and given that testosterone, HGH and EPO can help a fighter throw harder and faster punches for longer – the sport needs to stop wiffle-waffling over drugs.

Testing should be souped up and state-of-the-art. Bloods, biological passports and random tests should be the norm. Not – as in many cases – a quick post-fight piss in a cup.

Boxers caught taking drugs should be subject to the same penalties as every other athlete. Not the sporting equivalent of a tap on a wrist and a pull of the cheek.

But you cannot just blame the fighters for transgressing. They absorb the punches, suffer the pain; calculate the risks and rewards. Imagine a vast border of a country protected by a handful of patrollers. That's what drugs testing is often like. Fighters are merely playing the odds.

The authorities should be doing so too. It is almost inevitable that at some point a boxer will be seriously injured by an opponent with steroids sloshing around their system. But will every sanctioning body have done everything in their powers to minimise the chances?

Remember it is only a decade ago that the British Boxing Board of Control sold their London headquarters to pay Michael Watson more than £400,000 in damages – after it was ruled they had a duty of care to ensure he was properly and immediately treated.

At least the BBBofC has learned lessons. As its general secretary Robert Smith points out: "We are part of Wada, work closely with the UK anti-doping authorities and have dramatically increased out of competition testing, which in some cases includes bloods." Smith says that 951 British boxers were subject to random testing in 2012, at around £1,000 a time, while championship-level fighters were also tested after every bout.

In America, however, there is no overall boxing board of control. Every state looks after itself and its drug policy. And the long term is usually at some point in the next week.

But supporters of boxing should remember that the sport is seen as an anachronism by many, including this newspaper, which wrote in an editorial in 2000: "We repeat our long-held belief that boxing has no place in a civilised society. To those who say a ban would only drive the sport underground, we point to bear-baiting and cock-fighting: they were banned and have all but vanished from British life. We wish the same fate for the sport which has laid waste to too many young men."

Today that sounds emotional and illiberal. In the aftermath of death in the ring it would be anything but. Boxing saves lives and heals souls, as Lamont Peterson can testify. Sometimes, though, it needs to help itself too.