JEDDAH, 15 November 2006 — The General Presidency of Youth Welfare (GPYW) has called on Saudi Customs to exercise extra vigilance at land, sea and air entry points to stop illegal performance-enhancing drugs entering the Kingdom.
In a letter submitted to Saudi Customs, the GPYW demanded that customs officials confiscate performance-enhancing drugs that do not have certificates from the Ministry of Health; MOH is responsible for issuing clearances for drugs entering Saudi Arabia.
A customs source told Arab News that the GPYW was concerned about a growing trend among Saudi youth of frequenting sports gyms and injecting themselves with high-performance drugs such as steroids. “This extra vigil follows a decision by a special investigative committee formed by the Riyadh governorate to investigate a group of athletes in the national Saudi weightlifting team which brought drugs into the Kingdom by taking advantage of their positions as national athletes,” the source added.
The Saudi Weightlifting and Bodybuilding Federation in turn sacked the athletes and canceled their membership. The athletes have been banned from entering sporting establishments and joining weightlifting clubs.
Arab News discussed the issue with Dr. Saleh Al-Konbaz, who is president of both the National Anti-Doping Committee (NAC) and the Anti-Doping Regional Committee (ARC) for Gulf countries including Yemen. He is also the director of King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Riyadh.
Dr. Al-Konbaz explained that the NAC came into being two years ago when the Kingdom signed an agreement to establish such a committee. The committee was established to spread awareness among citizens and athletes.
Dr. Al-Konbaz said that “sporting drugs” now have to be approved by the Ministry of Health. Representatives from the ministry also randomly visit sporting federations and check on the drugs they provide to athletes.
He added that the ARC was established following recent requests from the Montreal-based World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The agency, he said, wanted to make communication and coordination among countries easier and smoother and so the ARC was set up.
According to Dr. Al-Konbaz, every Saudi sporting federation has its own anti-doping committee, which is supervised by the NAC. “The first successful project we did was to prepare all the rules and regulations that are to be implemented in the Kingdom. Then came our role in spreading awareness at the West Asian Championship 2006,” he said.
Among the ongoing projects that the NAC is carrying out is a training course that the committee held in September for 15 doctors. The course taught them how to spread awareness regarding drugs abuse.
“Our role is divided into two parts. First, taking samples during the athletes’ training. Second, during their actual performance. We have managed to collect 40 samples from the nearly 16 Saudi sports federations. This is a huge step for us, especially that the national teams are now in training camps spread in the Kingdom’s various cities,” said Dr. Al-Konbaz. “We, for sure, look forward to collecting samples from 200 to 300 athletes annually but it depends on the budget we have, the number of workers we have and the time we have on our hand.”
Dr. Al-Konbaz also referred to an interesting study conducted in Canada where students were asked to write what would motivate them to take steroids. Some said they would look better and to impress women, others said that such drugs do not have side-effects and yet others cited peer pressure.
“All the samples we get are sent immediately to WADA’s branch in Tunisia which is the only accredited place in the Arab countries. The branch transfers two copies of the results immediately to WADA and to the international federation of the sport the athlete belongs to. There is no way out for any athlete who break the rules,” said Dr. Al-Konbaz.
He believes in a stern penal system “because they are harming themselves physically and morally and also damaging the spirit of the sport.” He added that such drugs are a danger to health and can cause infertility and death.
“Athletes that take such drugs would be cheating and this is unfair to other people who work hard,” he added.
