Drug testing has tainted some popular sport name such as C.J. Hunter, Briton Dwain Chambers, and Marion Jones. This is why whenever steroids are being discussed, the focus of the people are automatically drawn to the sports field—the athletes. But the Chief of World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA), John Fahey, has shifted his attention to the Australian community who are also using these performance enhancing drugs. Dan Silkstone of The Age, the website of world news and breaking news in Australia, reported the call of Fahey for a sweeping research to the usage of these drugs and the execution of a public health campaign.

According to Fahey, the public health campaign for the use of performance-enhancing drugs can be likened to binge-drinking and anti-smoking—combating a growing problem. He also said that, “We have seen with things like smoking that…the more money you spend publicizing the downside of smoking, the better your results are in getting people to give it up.”

The Growing Problem on the Usage of Performance Enhancing Drugs:

Fahey commented that the amount of performance enhancing drugs being carried into the country had a dramatic increase in the past five years; but the great majority was not destined to elite athletes, instead it was brought into sporting clubs and community gyms. This circumstance prompted the WADA president to talk issues with federal Sports Minister Kate Ellis to discuss a raise in the funding of government for research and education campaigns. He also convened with the National Health and Medical Research Council Chief Executive, professor Warwick Anderson. Anderson is head of the Commonwealth body that allocates money for each year’s health related research. After the talk, Anderson confirmed immediately the willingness of the council to unite with WADA in implementing the commission research.

Fahey pointed out the importance of the fight against the use of performance enhancing drugs directly into the community when he said, “We really need to focus more generally and not just on elite steroids use.” He also added that equipping themselves with better knowledge concerning to the issue can give them more advantage to give out more awareness as well as support to attend the health of these ordinary individuals who might suffer the horrible consequences of the prohibited drugs.

Executing the Solution:

The awareness of the government concerning the abuse of these performance enhancing drugs by the community is growing now, Fahey said. This time, the government is deeming this issue as a critical public health problem and not just a dilemma for sports administrators. In fact, Sports Medicine Australia ordered to create cleanedge.com.au just recently. Cleanedge.com.au is the official website of Victorian government that is designed to educate young people concerning the risks of performance enhancing drugs. This group is already initiating a research on the scope of the problem.

However, according to the executive officer Lynne Sheehan, “There has been limited research conducted on performance-and-image-enhancing drugs in community sport and recreation.” She also said that the existing data is disturbing. Like for instance, the findings of the research conducted last 2005 revealed that three percent of the students in secondary high school had used performance enhancing drugs, especially the adolescent males. This research also revealed that children at the age of 12 are already starting to use these prohibited drugs.

Based from the existing data and the current issues on performance enhancing drugs usage, Fahey was able to conclude that people normally focused to the athletes and sports field when the issue is about steroids use or other performance enhancing drugs. We miss out the great majority of ordinary citizens who are also taking these stuffs.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS