Recreational drug use and sport: Time for a WADA rethink?

Abstract

This paper examines current policies towards drug use in sport to evaluate their appropriateness. The focus is on the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA's) attitudes and policies towards athletes' use of recreational drugs. Since recreational drugs such as marijuana are not performance-enhancing, one of the most frequently used arguments to justify doping controls -that those involved in drug use derive an unfair advantage over other competitors -cannot be used to justify controls on the use of such drugs. Given this, it is suggested that the attempt to control the use of marijuana within a sporting context is best understood in terms of the growing concern about drug 'abuse' within the wider society. The paper further suggests that the WADA has used the 'spirit of sport' argument to reach beyond traditionally accepted sporting concerns. In this regard, WADA is using anti-doping regulations to police personal lifestyle and social activities that are unrelated to sporting performance. On this basis, it is concluded that WADA's focus and resources should return to enforcing sporting values related to doping rather than policing athletes' lifestyles, and it is therefore suggested that the ban on marijuana and similar recreational drugs should be lifted.

Australian athlete support personnel lived experience of anti-doping

“…This is what most scholarship critical of anti-doping appears to do (e.g. Waddington et al, 2013). Doping attitudes appear to be influenced by ASP perceptions of ethical practice.…”

Doping in sport: Whose problem is it?

“…Not surprisingly, then, the phrase has become the single most controversial aspect of the Code. Many authors (e.g., Henne, Koh, & McDermott, 2013;Smith & Stewart, 2008;Stewart & Smith, 2014;Waddington, Christiansen, Gleaves, Hoberman, & Møller, 2013) have highlighted the lack of clarity, 3 absence of logic and other severe problems with the spirit of sport as a criterion for defining doping. The ambiguity of the term has perhaps contributed to a difference of opinion about how doping should be managed and the fragmented direction of the social science research into doping.…”

Be(coming) clean: Confessions as governance in professional cycling

“…2 Compliance with the Code is obligatory for all sports in the Olympic movement. The WADA rules are grounded in traditional anti-doping rationales (health and fair play) and more recently (1998) the 'spirit of the sport', which gives WADA a broad mandate for testing (Waddington et al 2013). Over time, the WADA Code has become more prescriptive.…”

“…In the case of the rider quoted above, 'pure' relates narrowly to what one ingests. More than any other form of cheating, drug use in sport generates an emotional response (Waddington et al 2013). 'Natural' and 'pure' are culturally powerful normative descriptions found throughout WADA documents including the Presidents Welcome Message and serve along with a concern for athlete health as founding pillars of anti-doping policy (see Hunt et al 2012).…”