Denial, the anabolic way

Not everyone is like Rahul. This 22-year-old woman, an Asian Games medallist, walked into my chamber and handed me an ampoule, saying, “Doctor, would you please inject me with this medicine?” The label carried an unfamiliar script. “It is good for faster recovery,” she informed me, adding she had got it from her coach. She had no reservations in revealing to me that her foreign coach was selling these medicines to the athletes in the camp and pocketing good money for that. She was unhappy when I refused her the injection, especially when I handed over the confiscated medicine to the authorities concerned. Days later when I met her, she beamed that she had just returned with another medal at the Asian level.

The stories are rampant. Another girl, a 17-year-old discus-thrower, came to me with abdominal pain. Investigations showed hepatitis. That was the second episode in six months. When probed, she confessed that she was taking anabolic steroids, a commonly abused substance in the prohibited list of the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA). Her consolation was that her roommate, another discus-thrower, was taking a higher dose than her. Here also the supplier was her personal coach. There was no provision to get her urine sample tested in the dope control laboratory in Delhi to confirm that it was a case of anabolic steroid induced hepatitis, as such testing for medical investigations are prohibited by WADA. They don’t want erring athletes to be saved by well-meaning doctors. Strange!

Today, Indian sport is infiltrated by not just one but by many Marion Jones, at all levels, senior, junior, sub-junior women or men. People like Trevor Graham, Marion’s coach, too are roaming free in our country, with their bags filled with ‘the Clear’, the designer steroid of Marion fame. But there is a difference. Our athletes are poor cousins to their counterparts in advanced countries when it comes to use of masking agents, to hide prohibited substances in the urine samples. Marion Jones was never caught; she only surrendered, thumbing her nose at the doping control laboratories, the flagships of WADA.

Soon we too can boast of a WADA accredited laboratory when the Delhi laboratory gets its accreditation. It may be able to catch more Indian athletes who succumb to doping. Still the laboratories will not be able to catch up with athletes like Marion Jones, as testing methodology continues to lag behind invention of designer drugs for sports. Compounding the problem is gene doping, a new challenge.

The authorities that run after athletes to catch and punish them should find time to catch the drug traffickers who masquerade as coaches and scientists and distribute drugs to sportspersons. This supply line needs to be snapped. Pharmacies and other outlets which sell prohibited drugs, especially anabolic steroids and hormones, in the vicinity of stadiums need to be targeted.

During his recent visit to Delhi, David Howman, director general of WADA stressed that theirs is only a monitoring agency and it does not police athletes. That job rests with international and national sports federations and also with the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA). Athletes who test positive are given a hearing by a committee constituted by the federations. Tainted athletes have no fear of this committee and deny any knowledge or involvement in doping. As such no information comes from them regarding the source of the drug for which they tested positive. The inquiry thus becomes farce. Instead, interrogation of athletes who test positive for banned substances should be handled by the police as trafficking and possession of such drugs without medical prescription is a criminal offence.

The police are better qualified to ask the right questions of tainted athletes, so that they can get clues about the source of the drugs, their supply channel and the payment mode. This would take them right down the supply chain. It should be made binding on WADA laboratories and sports governing bodies to pass on information on positive dope tests, especially those related to prescription drugs and restricted drugs, to the police for investigation.

One of the main arguments in favour of doping control is to protect athletes’ health. This is valid. Misuse and abuse of drugs can cause serious damage to health, especially when they hide it from doctors for fear of being exposed. Finally when they are caught in a drug test, no one owns them, neither the government nor the sports federations nor the employers. Instead they are banned from sports or even dismissed from their jobs. They find no means for proper rehabilitation even when they suffer from serious adverse effects of drug abuse. Properly rehabilitated, they can become ambassadors for anti-doping propaganda.

Athletes will continue to strive hard to create records in pursuit of excellence. The sports governing bodies will later erase their records on the argument of doping control. Whether it is doping or doping control, sports need to be protected against destruction.

The war between doping and doping control is a never-ending one with no chance for anyone to emerge victorious. Marion Jones, yesterday’s pin-up girl but today’s drug offender, could be tomorrow’s reformer and an inspiration for youngsters to refrain from doping.

The writer is the president of Indian Federation of Sports Medicine and Director (Sports Medicine), SAI