” “No lack of regulations

Ever more European countries are equipping themselves with particular regulations to respond to the growing menace of doping in the world of sport. We give a brief review of the existing legislation below. In Germany the problem of doping is treated in paragraph 6 of the law of September 1998 on the regulation of pharmaceutical products. The law makes it a criminal offence to “place in circulation pharmaceutical products for doping purposes in the sporting sphere, to prescribe them, or to use them”. Violations are punished with terms of imprisonment. The provision also punishes the manufacture and importation of doping substances, and their sale in pharmacies and especially in sports centres and gymnasia. Also in response to the controversies unleashed by the doping scandal in the former DDR, Germany, moreover, is one of the countries in which random controls on athletes are more frequent and more stringent. From January 1999 to August 2000 some 1900 controls were conducted, according to government sources. In Austria, after the ratification of some points of the European antidoping Convention of 19991, a bill is currently being discussed, aimed at re-ordering the pharmaceutical sector. Parliament has been working on the draft legislation since last October. In terms of doping, the first law in France dates back to 1st June 1965. It penalized with fines and arrests “anyone having the intention, during a sporting contest, deliberately to use one of the substances determined by the administrative regulation”. The provision is now updated every year, as indicated by the last definition dated 23 March 1999: “Doping is defined by the law as the use of substances or procedures calculated to artificially modify a sportsperson’s capacities… “. This new law introduces a certain number of obligations, “in particular for the sporting federations as regards the medical surveillance of their members with clinical, paraclinical and biological tests”. An independent administrative authority of control has also been created. Italy is also in the front line in the antidoping campaign, thanks to Law no. 376 of 14/12/2000 on the regulation of the medical protection of sporting activities and the campaign against doping. The law bans the use of substances harmful to athletes and sets up a Commission for control and surveillance on doping. The law determines, in conformity with the indications of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the procedures and methods of controls that may be conducted both during competitive events and at other times. All the sports federations, just like the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI), are required to adjust their own regulations to the provisions of the law. CONI, for its part, had promoted the campaign “My life before anything” which has the aim of laying down codes of ethical conduct to combat the scourge of doping. An antidoping Commission is also active in Sweden where law 1969 on the possession and use of narcotic and doping substance has been in force since 01/07/1992. Some 250 inspectors conduct over 2300 tests on athletes each year. An average of 1% of these test positive for the use of anabolic steroids. Sweden has also ratified the international antidoping accord (IADA). In Spain, in conjunction with the national antidoping Commission, various laws and decrees regulate sporting activity and doping: law 10/90, royal decree 48/92 and law 225/96. In particular, they establish the regime of violation and the sanctions for those who use doping substances. A manual is being prepared for athletes with all the necessary information on substances, controls and therapeutic indications. The same attention to the issue is being devoted in the Czech Republic (law 576/90), in Denmark (Antidoping Act 1993) and Finland (medicine act 395/87). Ample space is also given to the principles of prevention, in the diffusion of which athletes and trainers are being increasingly involved. That’s the case in Ireland, which is currently discussing draft legislation on doping and which, through its antidoping Committee, has distributed the guide “Clean Sport” among sportsmen. Belgium, Greece and Portugal are also provided with laws against doping.