Debating the role of drugs in sport: a reader

Abstract

The development of the agenda to guide social science research into drugs in sport was driven by two workshops. The first workshop examined basic drugs in sport issues, and attempted to put a common lexicon or discourse to frame and explore different ways of thinking about the issues. Development of this framework saw a first principles approach built from the purpose of social science towards the questions that proved starting points to understanding the issues at hand. The second workshop challenged the academic approach to drugs in sport with a hypothetical scenario discussed by people involved in the sports industry, including athletes, policy makers and parents of athletes. The results of these workshops form an insight into one attempt of a multi-disciplinary group to come to grips with how social science can contribute to relevant social issues such as understanding the role of drugs in sport.

Notes

¹ This point is made by Backhouse et al. , Attitudes, Behaviours, Knowledge and Education – Drugs in Sport, 110 and 119.

² For a discussion of the many ways to see sport, see Section 1 of Morgan and Meier, Philosophic Inquiry in Sport for a sound in-depth account, Coakley, Sports in Society, or Cashmore, Making Sense of Sport.

³ Leonard, ‘Doping in Elite Swimming: A Case Study of the Modern Era from 1970 Forward’, offers insights into the organization and administration of swimming, especially in relation to doping.

⁴ O'Dea, ‘Consumption of Nutritional Supplements Among Adolescents: Usage and Perceived Benefits’, and Peters et al. , ‘Beliefs and Social Norms about Ephedra Onset and Perceived Addiction among College Male and Female Athletes’.

⁵ Tested in Series 3 of the BBC production ‘Body Hits’; see http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/tv/bodyhits/index.shtml.

⁶ The discussion paper released by the Victorian Government, Towards a New Approach to Deterring Doping in Sport, offers some insights into translating doping policies to apply to the non-elite context.

⁷ Houlihan, Dying to Win, 59.

⁸ Nixon, ‘A Social Network Analysis of Influences on Athletes to Play with Pain and Injuries’, refers to such networks as a ‘sportsnet’. The BMA, Drugs in Sport: The Pressure to Perform, provides a sound overview of the issues around social network analysis of the athlete.

⁹ Leeds and von Allmen, The Economics of Sport, offer an account of sports as a multi-billion dollar entertainment industry.

¹⁰ For example, Byrne and Mazanov, ‘Sources of Adolescent Stress, Smoking and the Use of Other Drugs’, and Grekin, Sher and Wood, ‘Personality and Substance Dependence Symptoms: Modelling Substance Specific Traits’.

¹¹ Reilly, ‘Alcohol, Anti-anxiety Drugs and Sport’.

¹² Laure, ‘Epidemiologic Approach of Doping in Sport’, argues that developing a profile of coaches’ doping preferences is an important part in the development of an epidemiology of doping in sport.

¹³ Armstrong and Reilly, ‘Blood Boosting and Sport’.

¹⁴ Cashmore, Making Sense of Sports, 97, expands on this point suggesting two different-genera; from Homo Faber, or working man, for those who see sports as a job and Homo Ludens, or playing man, for those who participate for pleasure.

¹⁵ See Murphy and Waddington, ‘Are Elite Athletes Exploited?’, for more on this point.

¹⁶ See Byrne and Mazanov, ‘Sources of Adolescent Stress, Smoking and the Use of Other Drugs’.

¹⁷ Hoberman, Mortal Engines, and Waddington, Sport, Health and Drugs, present accounts of the historic and modern involvement of drugs in cycling. Carstairs, ‘The Wide World of Doping’, 267, claims swimming is a drug resistant sport through its status as a sport without equipment, although no direct evidence is offered to validate the claim.

¹⁸ Brantigan, Brantigan and Joseph, ‘Effect of Beta Blockade and Beta Stimulation on Stage Fright’.

¹⁹ Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, and The Rules of Sociological Method .

²⁰ Waddington, Sport, Health and Drugs.

²¹ Even if drug use were permitted to achieve equality at least in terms of drugs the issue of economic inequality would remain.

²² For example, Eric ‘the Eel’ Moussambani from Equatorial Guinea had never swum in a 50m pool before the 2000 Olympics; ABC Online, http://www.abc.net.au/sport/content/200408/s1172243.htm.

²³ Some examples of this literature are Tamburrini, ‘Are Doping Sanctions Justified?’; Savulescu, Foddy and Clayton, ‘Why We Should Allow Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sport’; and Schneider and Butcher, ‘An Ethical Analysis of Drug Testing’. Miah, Genetically Modified Athletes, gives an in-depth account of the harm argument.

²⁴ A point made by Mazanov, ‘Managing Anti-doping in Sport: Public Past or Private Future?’

²⁵ Verroken, ‘Drug Use and Abuse in Sport’.

²⁶ Foresight, ‘Drugs Futures 2025’, from www.foresight.gov.uk; and Mehlman, ‘Cognition-enhancing Drugs’.

²⁷ This line of argument is developed by Cashmore, Making Sense of Sports.

²⁸ If a country has a zero tolerance policy that is applied equally in any sector, including sport, then sport has no special status. What creates the imbalance is that sportspeople are barred from using certain substances and methods that the rest of society may use freely. Further, players associations in Australia report fears their government would withdraw funding from minority sports to force them to take up zero tolerance illicit drugs policies, despite the BMA advocating for harm minimization approaches (see Brett Harris and Stuart Honeysett, http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,22396428-2722,00.html?from = public_rss).

²⁹ Houlihan, Dying to Win, 145, expands on this point. For example, the Nazis were unable to change the rules of the International Olympic Movement to prevent Jesse Owen from competing; they had to submit to the rules of the sport in the attempt to demonstrate their political and ideological views.

³⁰ For an accessible and expanded discussion of chaos theory from which this example comes, see Gleick, Chaos: Making a New Science.

³¹ Nixon, ‘A Social Network Analysis of Influences on Athletes to Play with Pain and Injuries’, and Murphy and Waddington, ‘Are Elite Athletes Exploited?’, for an expanded discussion on this point.

³² Strelan and Boeckmann, ‘Why Drug Testing in Elite Sport does not Work’, report using such scenarios with Australian professional athletes.

³³ UK Sport, 2005 Drug-Free Sport Survey.

³⁴ See the Victorian Government, Towards a New Approach to Deterring Doping in Sport. Girginov, ‘Creating a Corporate Anti-doping Culture’, also discusses WADA acting globally and acting locally.

³⁵ The British Medical Association note this issue as a concern in, BMA, Drugs in Sport: The Pressure to Perform.

³⁶ Laure and Binsinger, ‘Adolescent Athletes and the Demand and Supply of Drugs’, note that 69.7% of the adolescents surveyed trusted their PESM suppliers, mainly their friends, parents or family medical practitioner.