Doping issues have been front and centre during the build up to the 2016 Olympic Games, even more so than previous years. Along with Zika, water quality and questions around the readiness of the host cities facilities, drugs have threatened to scupper Rio 2016 before it has begun. Usually the roster…
Category: Drugs
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Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 – The end of legal highs?
From midnight (starting 26 May 2016) the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 comes into effect, aiming to stamp out the market in ‘legal highs’ or novel psychoactive substances. The Act, which has seen several delays this year, will make it an offence to import, sell, supply or produce any substance knowing that it…
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Sunday Times Doping Scandal thoughts
Following the revelations in The Sunday Times yesterday there has once again been a spotlight on sports doping. As part of my ‘try something new’phase I thought I would record a short video of me talking about the scandal. I have talked to BBC radio a couple of times…
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Doping: black and white or shades of grey
In the fall out from the Sharapova Meldonium case much has been made of what is and what isn’t cheating or doping. This is not such a certain area, containing many shades of grey. People caught doping are often said to have crossed the line. But what is the line and…
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Maria Sharapova and Meldonium Doping
Yesterday the worlds richest sportswoman announced she had tested positive for a banned performance enhancing drug at the first ‘Grand Slam’ of the year in Australia. The drug – meldonium. Maria Sharapova sprang to prominence as a teenager winning Wimbledon in 2004. Since then she has rarely been…
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Should doping be a criminal offence?
The UK Sports minister, Tracey Crouch, has told the BBC she has instructed civil servants in her department to ‘look into’ making doping a criminal offence. Since the athletics doping scandal erupted over the summer, engulfing Paula Radcliffe amongst others, there have been calls in the UK for doping to…
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Levelling the playing field
I have been hearing a lot of people commenting that banning doping will lead to a level playing field in sport. In this post I am having a bit of a think about how the sports world regulates on doping and what constitutes a level playing field. This follows…
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Philip Seymour Hoffman drug overdose
High profile drug overdoses always bring the spotlight onto forensic toxicology, with newspapers and TV waiting on the details of what drugs have been taken. I talked briefly about the processes that occur in forensic toxicology in the blog post ‘Awaiting the results of toxicology testing‘, have a read for a…
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Brain doping – use of smart drugs in sport
A study was published late last year in the open access journal PlosOne on ‘cognitive doping’ in triathlon. That was a new phrase for me so I thought it was worth a bit of a look. The paper, titled ‘Associations between Physical and Cognitive Doping – A Cross-Sectional…
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Cycling and the athlete biological passport
This week Team Sky, the poster boys of the new clean cycling, have hit the headlines for the wrong reasons. Firstly John Tiernan-Locke (JTL), a British rider who won the Tour of Britain in 2012, was charged with an offence picked up by the athlete biological passport. Last night it was…