The Olympics and harm reduction?

Abstract

The current anti-doping policy ('war on doping') resembles the 'war on drugs' in several aspects, including a zero-tolerance approach, ideology encroaching on human rights and public health principles, high cost using public money for repression and control, and attempts to shape internationally harmonized legal frameworks to attain its aim. Furthermore, even if for different reasons, both wars seem not to be able to attain their objectives, and possibly lead to more harm to society than they can prevent.The Olympic buzz is mounting and we can expect multiple headlines in the media on doping and anti-doping stories related to this event. In this article we describe current anti-doping policy, reflect on its multiple unplanned consequences, and end with a discussion, if lessons learned from harm reduction experiences in the illicit drugs field could be applied to anti-doping.

Figure 1

From right to left: Prof David Cowan from King’s College London’s Drug Control Centre and Director of the London Anti-Doping Laboratory, Sir Andrew Witty, CEO of multinational GSK (laboratory sponsor), Paul Deighton, London 2012 Chief Executive, and Hugh Robertson, Minister for Sports and the Olympics (LOCOG, with permission).