The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7197 p633-640
11 May 2002

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Pharmacists should be more proactive about counselling on drugs in sport

Pharmacists should take a more proactive role in counselling against the use of drugs in sport, according to an expert in the subject.

Professor David Mottram of the school of pharmacy and chemistry, Liverpool John Moores University, told The Journal that he believed pharmacists should visit schools and gyms to counsel against drug taking in sport.

"As experts in medicines management we have a potentially important role to play. It is not only elite athletes who are involved with drug taking. Pharmacists should be aware of problems associated with the recreational use of steroids by people wishing to improve their body image or increase libido and who are not subject to drug testing," he said.

Professor Mottram was a speaker at a conference on drug use in sport held in London last month.

At the opening of the conference, the Minister for Sport, Richard Caborn, acknowledged the significant contribution that health professionals can make to ensure that sport is safely and sensibly enjoyed by all. Drug taking undermines the integrity of sport and affects not only athletes themselves, but their friends and families too, the Minister says. He welcomed the recent widening of the provisions of the Misuse of Drugs Act to include newer steroid derivatives.

Sir Roger Bannister said that the wake up call for action on doping had been the death of British cyclist Tommy Simpson from a drug overdose during the 1967 Tour de France. Since then much progress has been made in random testing but more still needs to be done to ensure that a repeat of the disgraceful and cynical behaviour of the East German sporting authorities during the 1970s and 1980s did not occur.

Unfortunately, sports cheats are still circumventing random testing procedures. Although £1.3m was spent on drug testing in the United Kingdom last year, more funds are needed to perfect the various tests being used. The possibility of gene therapy being abused by some athletes in the future is a particular cause for concern.

The rules on drug taking at national and international level are often difficult to interpret, Geoff Parsons, an Olympic high jumper, said. He believes that there should be a distinction between sanctions imposed on athletes who take drugs on a regular basis and those caught out by an isolated error of judgement.
— Contributed.