Just over two weeks ago Rugby League’s Terry Newton was suspended from the game for two years after admitting to using Human Growth Hormone.
It was the first time that an athlete has been suspended for the use of HGH and the results are seen as a huge landmark in the fight against doping in sport.
HGH was previously supposed to be undetectable but now UK Anti-Doping has devised a test which can prove otherwise, as shown by Newton’s admission after testing positive. The test has taken so long to devise because HGH is produced naturally in the body and leaves the system fairly quickly.
Now using recreational drugs such as marijuana or crystal meth (like Andre Agassi), may be less serious in the world of sport than using an agent such as HGH, but the punishment still remains just as harsh for the supposed lesser infractions.
Take the case of Adrian Mutu, the Romanian football player formerly of Chelsea and Juventus. In 2004 Mutu failed a drugs test for cocaine, resulting in a seven-month ban, a £20,000 fine and his contract with Chelsea being terminated.
The player has since failed another test which could result in a four-year ban from football. This time however it seems as if Mutu has a valid excuse, maintaining it was a natural slimming product which included a banned substance. Mutu has even provided the substance he used which claimed to be 100 per cent natural.
Despite having a legitimate excuse the Fiorentina forward has still been suspended since mid-January as he continues to wait for his case to be resolved. In fact his agent, Giovanni Becali, believes even if his client is acquitted he still will be banned for up to four months.
"My feeling is that he will be disqualified, but I think it will be no more than three to four months.
"Now, we just have to wait for the final verdict. Mutu showed the box of tablets that had the direction of being 100 per cent natural,” Becali said.
So why then has Jason Ferguson, an American Football player with a history of doping, only been suspended for the first eight games of the season?
He was suspended for violating NFL drug policy in 1999 which showed an anabolic steroid in his urine. Ferguson only missed four games, but back then the anti-doping wasn’t high on the American sports agenda.
Take a look at baseball’s doping history since the 90’s and you will quickly understand just how low on the agenda drug testing was.
Even at the NFL's scouting combine in 1997 Ferguson tested positive for marijuana and when he served his suspension in 1999 he tried to deny any wrongdoing, blaming a nutritional substance he took.
The lenient stance taken by the NFL and all the American leagues is a huge problem and even with the new HGH testing they are still refusing to implement the tests. The players unions are partly to blame, refusing to amend the current testing policy.
“At this point, there's no reason to believe that blood-testing for NFL players will or should be implemented, we should instead focus on preserving the drug-testing policy that we have in place,” George Atallah, union assistant executive director of external affairs, told The New York Post.
This is precisely the problem with the thinking in the US - instead of trying to preserve their sport the unions have so much power they are killing the essence of their sports all in the interest of economic gain.
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