WADA chief says drugs cheats shouldn't go to jail

Drug use and fraud are different things, and different laws and statutes apply. Whether or not a drug user can be prosecuted for using drugs, they can be prosecuted for fraud - which will often carry a far higher tariff of punishment. As for @manmachine above, mate, this is a cycling site not a forum for the overthrow of capitalism. Take it somewhere else.

Glad to hear about funding for research into detection methods. Despite the Armstrong downfall, well timed micro-dosing of EPO is no more detectable than it ever was. And now everyone knows it can work. In fact, in intense training and stage races, if micro-dosing of EPO is skillfully used to keep hemocrit levels constant rather than having them fall as they naturally would, an athlete is less likely to attract attention for having unstable hemocrit levels.

A Sportsman[?] who takes drugs is not a Sportsman.

Wada should stick to sport and let the legal system handle their own laws. At the end of the day, it is fraud, often heading into millions of £ so they should be punished. But then we see a load of bankers fixing exchange rates and other bad behavior and they get nothing. meanwhile some starving, homeless chap nicks £5 worth of stock from a shop and gets put away for 3 months.

F o o k e d up system

In two minds about this.

It seems excessive for athletes but then if your a government funded athlete caught doping you have been figuritively stealing money from other athletes pockets. I knew an amateur athlete that was still working full time who made a national rowing squad after years of trying and it was a life changing expierence. Imagine being that person and finding out the people in front of you getting your opportunity where doing it illegally

I totally get why doctors who run doping programmes would get jailed.

Governments, Governing Bodies and the Gestapo (Police) should worry more about the pressing issues of massive economic depression throughout the FAILED EU and the corrupted U.S.

The Trans Global Tyranny and the Fourth Reich sticking their noses where it doesn't belong. Politicizing ped use for propaganda. While infrastructure crumble. While Pensioners are being fleeced by Global Banksters. The western world deserves to be attacked by China-Russia Alliance. Maybe then priorities would take precedent.

The 'useless as an ashtray on a motorbike' governments of the West are Corrupted Criminal pieces of shit who should be jailed or hanged.

Jailed for ped use indeed...get fooked

FINALLY, someone with some common F'ing sense at wada. Still a bunch of wankers though. But the idea of locking people up for ped use is insane. All the Fifth Reich and haus-frau merkel are trying to do is expand on the industrialized prison system and make billions, as the Fourth reich does in the US. Scumbags, elites, POS Oligarchs.

Article would be more interesting if he said why criminalising doping is a bad idea. I believe the argument is that it may not help reduce the amount of doping that goes on. The standard of proof required may be higher, so fewer dopers are convicted. People involved in doping may be less likely to talk to WADA and national anti-doping bodies, and when they do the bodies themselves may be in an awkward position where information given to them in confidence is now evidence of criminal activity which should be shared with police.

It is fraud. People go to jail for less. Why not this?