Interesting article here at 'Swissinfo'. A professor of exercise physiology at Geneva University has called for legalizing sports doping.
But Bengt Kayser, professor of exercise physiology at Geneva University's faculty of medicine, argued that a continued blanket ban on drugs in sport is both a waste of
money and hypocritical.
He believes the only way to combat the growing problem is with a two-pronged approach of giving doctors the discretion to prescribe any substance that does not damage health, and to step up efforts to educate athletes.
"In elite sports I am convinced that we cannot win the war against doping. If you want to get rid of drugs in sport you will have to do away with sport itself," he told swissinfo.
"You only have to look at the way Switzerland tackles the problem of recreational drugs with a mixture of solutions to see how you can effectively lessen the damage."
However, the Swiss Sports Commission dismissed the proposal saying this:
Anti-doping commission president Hans Hoppeler dismissed Kayser's argument that the current system is not working and simply drives the problem underground into the hands of criminals.
"The perception that we are losing the fight against doping is wrong. Drug taking is prevalent is some areas, like cycling, but the reason that not so many athletes are caught in general is that only a few actually cheat," he told swissinfo.
"We must continue to improve the quality of testing, educating athletes, close more loopholes and weed the bad people out of the system. But we cannot expect miracles; we will need another seven or ten years."
Legalising doping would force more athletes to take drugs to compete on a level playing field, which would put the public completely off sport, he added. Furthermore, it would encourage children to imitate their heroes.
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