Doping is no longer limited to elite sport. Performance- and image-enhancing substances have become widely used in recreational sport and fitness environments. The demand for such drugs is increasing, driven by social-media culture, body-image pressures, and facilitated by easy online access and anonymous purchasing. Moreover, organised crime groups can shift from narcotics to doping substances due to gaps in enforcement, and lower punishments should they be caught.
Some 130 participants gathered in Paris to address these pressing issues at a conference entitled International Conference limiting the availability of doping substances in Europe: a shared responsibility, hosted by the Council of Europe with the support of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Consumers of performance-enhancing drugs don't understand risks
The event, which brought together representatives from public authorities, anti-doping organisations, the sports sector, law enforcement, and pharmaceutical industries was opened by the Council of Europe Director of security, integrity and rule of law, Hanne Juncher and the Senior Director, science and medicine at WADA, Olivier Rabin.
In her opening remarks, Hanne Juncher said that "There must be a real, coordinated effort to limit the abuse and availability of doping substances. If the supply of illicit doping substances remains unchecked, the problem stays alive. And consumers of such substances are often unaware of the health risks, or in some cases, ignore those risks to achieve short-term gains in body image and appearance."
She also invited participants to consider ways of giving substance to the New Democratic Pact in the sports sector. "Sport can also serve as a stabilising factor for societal resilience and remains a uniting element at a time when our democracies are under constant pressure.
Olivier Rabin underlined that legal and illegal emerging substances are top of mind for WADA and the reason why the Agency has established strong relationships with the pharmaceutical industry and law enforcement over the years. "I was very pleased to have the opportunity to address the Council of Europe conference this week. Meetings like this one, with clean sport partners, play an integral role in ensuring our success in restricting substances to people who need them, while minimising those that get into the hands of athletes and others for the wrong reasons."
More than two in five young people exposed to "shortcut" content weekly
In her keynote speech, Professor Susan Backhouse, Director of research and knowledge exchange at Leeds Beckett University's Carnegie School of Sport, addressed enhancement behaviours in sport and wider society: "They are not simply individual choices but are shaped by powerful environments that normalise rapid transformation, amplify perceived benefits, and obscure risk - reflected in recent UK anti-doping data showing 42% of young people regularly exposed to 'superhuman' or 'shortcut' content at least weekly, and 33% reporting purchasing substances such as selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs) after seeing them promoted online."
Campaigners have to reach people outside of organised sport
Research and Development Director at the A-Clinic Foundation in Finland, Jukka Koskelo, presented a good practice example: "An important strength has been the existence of independent public-health actors working alongside national anti-doping organisations, bringing broad expertise in addictions, prevention, harm-reduction, research and low-threshold support services across different substance-related harms. This has made it easier to build trust, reduce stigma and reach people outside organised sport."
The Council of Europe, through its international conventions, is addressing this complex issue at the intersection of sport, medicines regulation and public health for a better governance and integrity with the aim of making sport more ethical, inclusive and safer.
In his concluding remarks, Michał Rynkowski, Director of the Polish anti-doping agency, POLADA and Chair of the Council of Europe monitoring group of the Anti-Doping Convention, said that "This is the right moment to take action against pharmaceutical crimes, especially those related to doping substances".
He called upon law-enforcement agencies, pharmaceutical and health authorities, as well as the pharmaceutical industry, to work at every level - from operational activities at the grassroots level, through legal and regulatory frameworks, up to high-level political decision-making - and use the existing coordination mechanism embedded in the Anti-Doping Convention to tackle this negative phenomenon. "This conference offers a welcome opportunity to build a bridge between national governmental representatives and sports organisations."
The Council of Europe Anti-Doping Convention
The Council of Europe Convention on the counterfeiting of medical products and similar crimes involving threats to public health (MEDICRIME Convention)
