2018 (Heisei 29) program report : from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018 / Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA). - Tokyo : JADA, 2018

2016 (Heisei 28) program report : from April 1, 2016 to March 31, 2017 / Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA). - Tokyo : JADA, 2017

2014 (Heisei 26) program report / Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA). - Tokyo : JADA, 2015

2013 (Heisei 25) program report / Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA). - Tokyo : JADA, 2014

Athletes’ perspectives on WADA and the code : a review and analysis / John Gleaves, Ask Vest Christiansen

• International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics 11 (2019) 2, p. 341-353
• The World Anti-Doping Agency at 20: Progress and Challenges
• DOI: 10.1080/19406940.2019.1577901

ABSTRACT

This article presents athletes’ perspective on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the Code (WADC). Following a brief historical overview on athletes’ view on doping controls, the article synthesizes existing empirical research on athletes’ attitudes with examples and quotes expressed through various media on both anti-doping and specific topics within WADA’s anti-doping framework. Although pockets of disconcert persist, the analysis shows that athletes generally express contentment with the current system and its ambitious aim to homogenise anti-doping efforts. However, athletes have also raised serious concerns on four specific issues, namely on a), the fair and consistent application of the rules for all athletes in a sport, b) the obligation to submit their whereabouts, c) the due processes when facing accusations of violations and d) the possibility for athletes to genuinely participate in the policy and decision making process. The chapter concludes with recommendations on how WADA could accommodate the athletes’ concerns

Identifying a typology of men who use anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) / Renee Zahnow, Jim McVeigh, Geoff Bates, Vivian Hope, Joseph Kean, John Campbell, Josie Smith

• International Journal of Drug Policy 55 (May 2018), p. 105-112
• PMID: 29525360
• DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2018.02.022

Abstract

Background: Despite recognition that the Anabolic Androgenic Steroid (AAS) using population is diverse, empirical studies to develop theories to conceptualise this variance in use have been limited.

Methods: In this study, using cluster analysis and multinomial logistic regression, we identify typologies of people who use AAS and examine variations in motivations for AAS use across types in a sample of 611 men who use AAS.

Results: The cluster analysis identified four groups in the data with different risk profiles. These groups largely reflect the ideal types of people who use AAS proposed by Christiansen et al. (2016): Cluster 1 (You Only Live Once (YOLO) type, n = 68, 11.1%) were younger and motivated by fat loss; Cluster 2 (Well-being type, n = 236, 38.6%) were concerned with getting fit; Cluster 3 (Athlete type, n = 155, 25.4%) were motivated by muscle and strength gains; Cluster 4 (Expert type, n = 152, 24.9%) were focused on specific goals (i.e. not 'getting fit').

Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrate the need to make information about AAS accessible to the general population and to inform health service providers about variations in motivations and associated risk behaviours. Attention should also be given to ensuring existing harm minimisation services are equipped to disseminate information about safe intra-muscular injecting and ensuring needle disposal sites are accessible to the different types.

The unintended consequences of emphasising blood-borne virus in research on, and services for, people who inject image and performance enhancing drugs : A commentary based on enhanced bodybuilder perspectives / Mair Underwood

• International Journal of Drug Policy 67 (May 2019), p. 19-23
• DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2018.11.005

Abstract

Blood-borne viruses (BBVs) are an established focus of drug research and harm reduction. While a focus on BBVs has been applied to people who inject image and performance enhancing drugs (IPEDs), research has demonstrated that there are significant differences between this group and people who inject other drugs. Furthermore, the literature on BBVs and IPED use has been misrepresented by the media and harm reduction programs, with significant consequences for how some people who inject IPEDs view academic research and health services. It seems time to ask, is our current approach to the issue of BBV among people who inject IPEDs the most appropriate, and are there ways that it could be improved to ensure that there are no unintended consequences? In this commentary I suggest ways research and harm reduction efforts could tackle the issue of BBV without exacerbating existing divides between people who inject IPEDs and the health and academic communities. These suggestions are based on the views of the enhanced bodybuilders with whom I am privileged to work.

The uncertainties of enhancement : A mixed-methods study on the use of substances for cognitive enhancement and it’s unintended consequences / Margit Anne Petersen, Oskar Enghoff, Jakob Demant

• Performance Enhancement & Health 6 (July 2019) 3-4, p. 111-120
• DOI: 10.1016/j.peh.2018.09.001

Abstract

Aims

The use of substances for cognitive enhancement has become a relatively well-studied phenomenon in recent years. However, few studies deal with the negative and unintended consequences of such practices. This article uses two data sets to explore and discuss the doubt and negative consequences that affect people using substances in the pursuit of enhancing cognition.

Methods

Data for the study are drawn from an online discussion forum on substances for enhancement and from ethnographic fieldwork carried out among university students in New York City. Taking a quali-quantitative approach, we combine digital text analytic tools with qualitative analysis and readings.

Findings

Using prescription stimulants and other substances for cognitive enhancement generates considerable uncertainty in terms of unclear effects, varying practices and ambivalent ethics. While the negative effects are not something easily discussed in person, references to them are very common in the online discussion forum.

Conclusions

People who use substances for enhancement have developed a ‘folk pharmacology’ that seems to play an important role in how they perceive the negative effects. This may make people who engage in these kinds of enhancement practices less able to make informed choices about their use of these substances.

Amateurism, scientific control, and crime : historical fluctuations in anti-doping discourses in sport / Ian Ritchie, Kathryn Henne

• Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice 4 (2018) 1, p. 18-21
• DOI: 10.1108/JCRPP-01-2018-0003

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess the institutional mechanisms for combating doping in high-level sport, including the trend toward using legalistic frameworks, and how they contribute to notions of deviance.

Design/methodology/approach

A historical approach informed by recent criminological adaptations of genealogy was utilized, using primary and secondary sources.

Findings

Three time periods involving distinct frameworks for combating doping were identified, each with their own advantages and limitations: pre-1967, post-1967 up until the creation of the World Anti-Doping Agency in 1999, and post-1999.

Originality/value

This study contextualizes the recent legalistic turn toward combating doping in sport, bringing greater understanding to the limitations of present anti-doping practices.

Making a difference? Applying Vitellone’s social science of the syringe to performance and image enhancing drug injecting / Aaron Hart

• International Journal of Drug Policy 61 (November 2018), p. 69-73
• DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2018.03.029

Abstract

Vitellone’s Social Science of the Syringe investigates epistemologies of injecting drug use. She argues for a methodology that can be simultaneously sensitive to biopolitical power regimes; the trajectories of social stratification; and the resistance, creativity and dignity of human agency. She proposes a methodological focus on the syringe-in-use as an active participant in these dynamics. Harm reduction policy and service provision frameworks have paid little attention to the phenomena of performance and image enhancing drug (PIEDs) injection. One way of assessing the merit of Vitellone’s proposal is to use it to investigate these phenomena. I argue that Vitellone’s method can be used to articulate a range of significant differences between people who inject PIEDs and other people who inject drugs, and that these differences can inform harm reduction initiatives. When compared to the heroin syringe, the PIED syringe participates in different socio-economic and material contexts, gendered identities, and biopolitical governance regimes. These differences materialise in different rates of syringe sharing and blood-borne virus transmission; and different experiences of needle exchange services. I offer a thought experiment demonstrating how a different syringe might alter the structural dynamics, biopolitical governance, and the agentic choices of people who inject PIEDs. Judging by the productive effects of diffracting Vitellone’s analysis through an empirical concern with PIED injecting, I concur with Vitellone’s proposition that ‘something objective may be gained from an empirical investigation of the syringe-in-use’ (p. 33).