Italy Rules Steroid, Doping Drug Sales Not Illegal
Thu Apr 4, 3:01 PM ET
FLORENCE, Italy (Reuters Health) - Selling steroids and other doping drugs to amateur athletes is no crime, Italy's highest appeals court declared on Wednesday.
The ruling was the first legal decision based on an anti-doping law introduced in 2000, which makes sports doping an offence punishable by up to 3 years in prison and fines of up to about 52,000 euro, according to media reports.
Asked to rule on a judge's decision not to authorise the arrest of a man accused of selling 10 vials of "Deca Durabolin" (nandrolone decaonate), the Court of Cassation, Italy's Supreme Court, said that traffic in doping drugs is a crime only in certain circumstances.
As detailed in article 9 of the law, prosecutors must prove that the purpose was to falsify the outcome of a competitive sport event or the results of anti-doping tests.
"It is a controversial ruling, and could pave the way to social doping in gyms," Dr. Giulio Rossi, a member of the Italian Federation Ice Sports anti-doping commission, told Reuters Health.
"The anti-doping law should be revised, but most of all there should be more efforts telling people that sport activity doesn't mean a forced fitness, but a psycho-physical well-being," he said.
According to lawyer Franco Coppi, the court ruling is correct from a judicial point of view. "In such cases, the nandrolone traffic could lead to other crime, but not sport fraud," he told the daily La Repubblica.
In coming days, Italy's anti-doping body, a committee to be overseen by the health ministry, is expected to release a list of banned drugs.
Meanwhile, a new International Olympic Committee (news - web sites) study yet to be published could shed new light on doping. According to a report in Britain's Financial Times on Thursday, widely used food supplements contain substances that could lead to positive results for banned anabolic steroids.
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