Doping Prosecutors and Judges May Reduce Athlete Sanctions
Following up on earlier recent Bicycle.net posts:
The Los Angeles Times reports (link requires registration):
Anti-doping group to show some leniency
International agency will drop rigid stance and change sanction rules on stimulant violations seen as minor or unwitting.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND — In what appears to be a concession to critics, the World Anti-Doping Agency said Wednesday it plans to grant greater leeway to doping prosecutors and judges to reduce sanctions against athletes accused of drug violations deemed to be accidental or trivial.
The proposed change would apply only in cases involving detected stimulants, but the action represents a sea change in WADA’s approach to enforcement.
The agency had held rigorously to a “strict liability” policy, treating as a serious violation the presence of any banned substance in an athlete’s body, even at concentrations too low to affect performance.
A Times investigation disclosed in December that WADA policies resulted in numerous instances of severe sanctions against athletes for minor and unwitting ingestion of banned substances.
…
The proposed amendment to the World Anti-Doping Code would partially address rising complaints from international sports officials and anti-doping organizations, many of whom have recommended more far-reaching reforms.“You end up feeling a bit awkward about imposing a two-year sanction on someone who, when all is said and done, wasn’t doping,” WADA President Dick Pound said.
Pound, a noted hard-liner on sports doping, continued to insist that most doping cases result from deliberate drug use. He also seemed intent on playing down effects of the proposed amendment.
“This is not a free ride for anyone,” he said of the proposal for more flexibility in sanctions.
Pound, 64, who will retire from his post at the end of this year, made his remarks at a symposium aimed at outlining for sports journalists the agency’s plans for revising the code.
…
Pound repeated warnings that doping is a growing problem in international sports and asserted that “doping is very, very seldom an accident.”Significantly, however, he also noted that accidental ingestion “can and does happen.”
…
“Don’t be fooled by [athletes'] protestations of innocence, of biased appeal procedures, of weak science,” Pound said. “The overwhelming number of doping cases are planned and deliberate.”He also contended that trafficking in illicit doping substances has become so lucrative that it has attracted the interest of organized crime.
“We’ve been told by authorities that the value of the sports drug market exceeds the value of marijuana, cocaine and heroin combined,” he said, later attributing the startling claim to Interpol.
…
Numerous national anti-doping bodies have objected to WADA’s hard line on pot on the grounds that it is a recreational drug with no known performance-enhancing characteristics in any sport. The ban, they argue, amounts to a venture in social policymaking under the cover of the fight against sports doping.Pound hinted that he agrees.
“I’m trying to think of how many sports you’d be better at under the influence of marijuana,” he said in an interview with The Times during a break in the symposium. But he said removing cannabis entirely from WADA’s jurisdiction would provoke opposition from the United States.
“Having cannabis on the list is essential to having U.S. participation in the [anti-doping] program,” he said.
…
Categories: News
Tags:
Leave a Reply