INTRODUCTION
The world of sports has seen athletes with enormous powers and deduction to their fields though, at the dark side of it, these powers and performance have been at the peak by the use of performance-enhancing drugs or, the so called, “doping”. Much of the controversy surrounding the Olympics and sports, in general, is related to doping. Doping is the usage of a prohibited substance to enhance performance in sports. Nevertheless, many athletes are not addicted to these doping techniques but on the other hand, are in the veins of nearly every third sportsperson. It is evident that doping compromises the credibility of performance in sport, the media sparkling victories of some ‘on-field heroes’ becomes questionable and disputable. Performance-enhancing drugs such as narcotics and analgesics, anabolic steroids, hormones, selective androgen receptor modulators are among the most highly used doping substances. The numbers of new substances are increasing day-by-day and along with the cases too. For most of the sportsperson, it can be said that the intake of these drugs has been normal to them because of the non-functionality of certain authorities and the trainers. The financial or the monetary interests, the pressure to obtain better results, the media coverage of sports competitions, and most importantly the unusual human nature, can explain the phenomenon of high usage of drugs for better performance.[ii]
Doping has been so common that new rules and regulations are being implemented now and then. The forming of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), Athletics Federation of India, etc. are the key authorities who are fighting to bring down the act of doping and make sports a clean field to play. Efforts to combat the menace of doping have been made since 1960, but more serious efforts were made in the 21st century with the establishment of the World Anti-Doping Agency (hereinafter ‘WADA’) by the International Olympic Committee. WADA has laid various benchmarks for the establishment of different in-house committees, small scale agencies, and other Doping combat bureau. The rules and regulations under the authorized agencies cover the criminal offenses related to doping that are recorded in the Medical Act. The rules and regulations under the authorized agencies which are mainly the stepping stones of the law cover the criminal offenses relating to doping which are even recorded in the Medical Act. The law regulates that self-doping is a criminal offense and specifies various punishment criteria for the offenders. The new anti-doping law helps law enforcement agencies to dismantle doping networks. For the first time, the data exchange between NADA, courts, and prosecutors is regulated by law.[iii] Laws and rules have been made in almost every country but there is not a single Nation that has stepped forward and imprisoned the athlete for the violation of the anti-doping law or rule. Anti-doping laws are not just restricted to the athletes or the players but have opened the scope of punishment for the coaches, medical staff, and personnel and those who are engaged in this act of doping or helping the athlete to enhance/increase the performance through the unlawful drugs.
HISTORY
Sports have been coloring the world even before the use of black and white television and so are the hormones to be successful in those events. Doping always acted as a dormant partner for various sportspersons but the whole world started recognizing it after numerous years of advancement. The term \”Citius Altius Fortius\” has brought a challenging mindset in every sportsperson and so is the use of performance-enhancing meds. During the third century BC, ancient Greek Olympic athletes focused on enhancing their performance by using such stimulants as brandy, wine, hallucinogenic mushrooms, and sesame seeds.[iv] Ancient events marked the use of drugs such as animal organs that tentatively caused the hormones to actively work, making the performance level to increase. Where cheating was severely punishable in the early Olympics and fell under the concept of enslavement, there was no mention of this offence of enhancing performance by ingesting substances or doping in any law. Moreover, due to the lack of rules to support this cause, it was gradually considered as a non-punishable act for the sportspersons.
With the development in science and technology, the ways to enhance productivity in an event has also increased. The 19th century marked the inauguration of taking stimulants to enhance energy use, production, and recovery in sports competition grew in popularity.[v] At that particular time, there was the least emphasis on the law related to doping and performance drugs which indirectly gave a green signal to all the athletes regarding whether to have an intake of it or be excluded. \”Elixir of Life\” by Charles-Édouard Brown-Sequard became the earliest known performance-enhancing medicine in American professional sports. This came into limelight when Jim \”Pud\” Galvin, a pitcher with the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, downed it before a game in 1889.[vi] Stimulants were not only used for the purpose of enhancing the performance but it was routinely used by endurance walkers to keep them awake, even the long-distance cycling racers and Marathon runners soon became familiar with such drugs.
The early 20th century started with the question of whether or not doping can be useful for sports and can it be legalized? Various sports persons and team doctors mentioned that few sports can’t be performed by not using the drugs as these sports such as weightlifting, swimming, boxing, etc. required a high level of endurance and stamina that these performance-enhancing steroids can only fulfill. Rules were in phase to be made though. due to lack of facilities and authority, the laws were not implemented at that particular time. Nevertheless, this gave the spectators as well as the athletes’ perfect knowledge regarding the blacklisting of such performance-enhancing drugs. In 1968, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) introduced drug testing at both the summer and winter Olympics. The test’s result led to a ban of the Anabolic Steroids in 1976 and in the late 1970s, doping-related disqualifications, particularly in strength-related sports, markedly increased. In the 1970s and 1980s doping news against sportsperson were just for the purpose of publishing in the sports newspaper, no serious or legal actions were taken against them. Though in the 1970s and 1980s news of drug use in sports was just for the sake of publishing to the sports pages of newspapers, for instance, if at all anything relating to drugs was reported, it was made a piece of breaking news during that period.
AUTHORITY AND LAW
The 21st century embraced the path of anti-doping laws. When new techniques and innovations for enhancing the performance came up, there was an initiation in the framing of rules and regulations as well, in order to maintain a level of sporting personality in and off the field for the sportspersons. By seeing the growth of the authoritarian level for anti-doping laws, the response of the Indian sports administrators, which includes the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, has so far been as per the necessity. While the establishment of the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) in 2009 increased the level of detection, it has not had a significant impact as expected as compared to the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA). The year 2004 marked the establishment of the World Anti-Doping Code (WADA) and eventually, it has been amended several times in order to meet the challenges of the ever-growing advancements in sports. The law stated down as per the guidelines of WADA ensures the enforcement of the Code and also coordinates with Regional Anti-Doping Organizations (RADO) to help other nations to develop Code compliant anti-doping regime so that athletes in all the nations worldwide are subjected to the same anti-doping processes and protocols. Another major function of WADA is to spread knowledge and awareness amongst the athletes about the adverse effects of doping and its impact on professional as well as personal life.
WADA has made rules that are uniformly followed by every nation. Rules that make athletes strictly liable for taking any substance or drugs that are illegal or have been banned.[vii] Though the agency has been lenient to the athletes who have been indulged in these acts for the first time and merely provides a warning or in severe cases suspensions, for those habitual doping athletes the code is wide open to imprisonment and extreme punishments. WADA and other All Nation Authorities have been influential for nations to deal with doping and performance-enhancing drugs.
Comparing National Agency to the World Agency, NADA has not been on the good path as per the standards laid down. In particular, there has not been any independent investigation commissioned by the Government to analyze the extent of doping within different sports in India. NADA under the control of the Government is not able to gain the confidence of the people because it does not promote impartiality. Decisions involving the culpability of both the sportspersons and government-appointed coaches create a conflict of interest. Interest is not the sole that is hampered, the corruption eventually finds its way to capture the field of sports, and even sportspersons with high intake of performance-enhancing drugs are left untouched. Rather, it’s a shame to mention that to date there have not been many effective measures taken to instill accountability amongst the sport governing bodies in view of the doping scandals.
CONCLUSION
Balance is to be maintained between the objectives of the Code, whether it is enshrined in WADA or other measures such as National Agencies, and the rights of the athletes. Emphasis has been laid on stringent actions and implementation of the law that should be taken against the authorities in case of non-compliance. The expertise required in developing and executing an effective anti-doping policy in India may take a while to come into existence. However, the authorities are trying their level best to act accordingly in order to make peace with sports. NADA should also play a more proactive role by making their programs more athlete-friendly. It should focus more on creating awareness amongst the athletes regarding the harmful effects of doping rather than only penalizing them.
To do so, the programs and the presentations should be conducted in the vernacular language of the athlete as it helps in acquainting them better with the technicalities of doping. It has always been reiterated that sports enhance personality and trait for development, accordingly the sportspersons should look forward to an ethical lifestyle, hard work, and sweat rather than indulgences in the meds and drugs. Not only the sportspersons but also the coaches and training staff should be sensitized with the pros and cons of doping that could help the world of sports in putting a stop in this illegal act of performance-enhancing.
–Areeb Ahsan
KIIT School of LawReferneces:
[ii] Rodriguez-Serrano LI, Timpka T, Ekberg J, Dahlstrom O, Jacobsson J. Young athletes\’ health knowledge system: a qualitative analysis of health learning processes in adolescent sportspersons. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6311632/
[iii] https://www.nada.de/en/legal-matters/anti-doping-law/#:~:text=The%20law%20covers%20all%20criminal,are%20included%20in%20the%20law.
[iv] Yesalis CE, Bahrke MS. History of doping in sport. Int Sports Studies. 2001;21:43-76.https://www.medscape.com/features/slideshow/history-of-doping-in-sports
[v] Reardon CK, Creado S. Drug abuse in athletes. Subst Abuse Rehabil. 2014;5:95-105.
[vi] Moore J. A brief history of performance-enhancing drugs. Vice Sports. September 10, 2014. https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/a-brief-history-of-performance-enhancing-drugs
[vii] Article 2 of WADA Code https://www.wada-ama.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/wada-2015-world-anti-doping-code.pdf
LAWBEES 