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Leader
Social drug policies for sport
  1. M Turner1,
  2. P McCrory2
  1. 1Lawn Tennis Association, The Queens Club, Palliser Road, London W14 9EG, UK
  2. 2Centre for Sports Medicine Research & Education and Brain Research Institute, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
  1. Correspondence to:
 Dr Turner; 
 jockeydoc{at}aol.com

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsm.37.5.378

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    Athletes who test positive for social drugs should be managed differently from those who test positive for performance enhancing drugs

    The use and abuse of social drugs is now widespread in society, and there is no evidence that sport is immune. UK Government statistics quoted in the Sunday Observer (21 April 2002) put the usage in the 16–18 year old age group at about 40% when individuals were asked “have you taken any recreational drugs in the last 12 months?”

    In a recent statement, a retired Australian footballer claimed that 80% of elite footballers in Australia had used or been offered recreational drugs. This statement received an extraordinary amount of media attention, and other commentators and footballers claimed that the figure was closer to 30%. What this highlighted was that these issues are extremely common and, interestingly, mostly noted in younger (<20 year old) footballers.

    The International Olympic Committee (IOC) prohibits some of the products commonly found on the “club scene”, because they are perceived to be performance enhancing, but most so called “recreational” drugs do not fall into this category. …

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