Drugs, sport and the law.

The use of performance-enhancing substances by athletes has a long history, predating the ancient Greek Olympiads. This report compares anti-doping policies for performance enhancing substances among the Olympic movement and three professional sports - Major League Baseball, the NBA, and the NFL.

Drug use and abuse represents perhaps the most profound and high-profile issue facing sport today. Each major international championship seems to deliver a new drug-related controversy, while drug takers and sports administrators attempt to out-manoeuvre each other with new substances and new testing procedures. Drugs in Sport - 3rd Editionis a fully revised and updated version of the most comprehensive and authoritative text available on the subject. Leading figures in the field explore the hard science behind every major class of drug, as well as the social, ethical and organisational dimensions to the issue. Key topics include: * analysis of all the key substances, including anabolic steroids, EPO and human growth hormone * alcohol and social drug use in sport * creatine and nutritional supplements * evidence and issues around doping control in sport. This is a highly accessible text for all sports science and sports studies students, coaches and professional sports people, and sports administrators and policy-makers.

Athletes are always aiming to be faster, better, stronger. New techniques to enhance their sporting performance have increasingly been linked to use of novel psychoactive substances (NPS) and other hard-to-detect substances like performance-enhancing drugs. This book offers a timely analysis of the new challenges posed by this phenomenon in the anti-doping community. The authors present the first comprehensive perspective on the rapidly shifting doping scenario and reflect on use, regulation, policy, and market structure of NPS used in sports. They highlight the challenges with the list of prohibited substances and methods in and out of competition. They also evaluate how methods to detect new drugs present an ongoing battle for doping control as they have to be adapted constantly. Topics covered within the chapters include: Contamination of Sports Supplements with Novel Psychoactive Substances Untested Supplement Use Among Athletes: An Overlooked Phenomenon? International Drug Control: Protecting the Health of the Athlete Analysis of New Chemical Entities in a Sport Context Emerging Drugs in Sport establishes a clear benchmark on the policy discussion, drawing from available evidence and sources, including athletes' personal experiences, to generate a fact-based resource that informs a research as well as wider audience. The book is essential reading for those working in anti-doping, substance misuse, sports, ethics, and human enhancement. It also is useful for policy-makers, legislative personnel, and other professionals with an interest in protecting clean sport. “Doping is one of the greatest threats to the integrity of sport. We must never be tempted to turn our back on the problem and hope it will disappear. The benefits and values of clean sport have never been more important to the world. That is why this book with its wide-ranging approach is so valuable.” Thomas Bach, President, International Olympic Committee “Physical activity is vital to a healthy living, which is why doping is not just an assault on fair competition, but also on health. I strongly commend this book for compiling advanced knowledge on performance-enhancing drugs and promoting health through sport.” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization

The use of illegal performance enhancing drugs in elite sport, known as 'doping', is hidden in nature and increasingly widespread. Recent local and international doping scandals involving professional cyclists and football players have brought the issue of drugs in sport under greater scrutiny. Catching drug cheats is essential if sports are to be conducted fairly and if harmful health effects from drug abuse are to be avoided. A number of sports are plagued by suspicions that many top athletes resort to drug-taking to enhance their performance through the use of such substances as anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, erythropoietin (EPO), beta-blockers, stimulants and diuretics. This book examines anti-doping regulation in Australia and globally, and presents a range of opinions on the ethics of drugs in sport. Elite sports people are always seeking a competitive edge, to break records and win, sometimes at an ethical cost. What substances and methods are considered doping, and how can regulation and testing ensure all athletes have a sporting chance? Should drug cheats continue to be punished for doping, or should doping even be made legal?

From a 1998 conference sponsored by the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles, 11 studies cover the science of doping and testing; its history, ethics, and social context; and its politics. Among them are a comparison of how Canada, Russia, and China have responded to doping scandals involving their athletes. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

Drugs and Doping in Sport brings together work from leading academics, practitioners and administrators, analyses contemporary socio-legal and political themes related to doping in sport.

"The inside story about drug use in sport and its political cover-up, with a prescription for reform [by the] former chief medical officer for the United States Olympic Committee"--Jacket subtitle.

Drug abuse in sport has now become an acute international problem, which undermines the integrity of sport and is a real danger to the health of thousands of athletes. The second edition of this publication has been updated to take account of new forms of drug abuse in the sports world, as well as developments in genetic engineering and gene therapy. It also contains a list of useful internet sources. A key finding is that the control of doping, including the harmonisation of both practice and policy among the major world sports bodies, requires a re-evaluation of the direction of future anti-doping policy, particularly in the light of the recent establishment of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Sport may teach people how to win gracefully, but it may also teach them how to win at any cost, even if this involves violence or cheating. Here, a sociological perspective is brought to bear on the topic of how sport operates.