Connecting over 25 millions NRIs worldwide
Most trusted Name in the NRI media
NRI PEOPLE- OUR NETWORK
 
Dr.Raghbir Singh Bains- Surrey, BC, Canada


Doping-injecting

Attack of Doping Drugs in the World of Sports Must be Curbed

Vancouver, Canada, July 17, 2011
Dr Raghbir Singh Bains

 Drugs are a great menace and known killers of the society. Drugs bring bad name and result in addiction, domestic violence, murders, adultery, debauchery, cancer, AIDs and socio-religious decadence.  Families are ruined and progenies are down sided by the fatal drugs. The terrible substances know no discipline, morals, boundaries, age, race, caste, colour or creed.  Curbing this menace has become an uphill task throughout the world.

 Ironically drugs have sneaked into all the fields of human life so much so that they have not spared even the most honourable and once a graceful arena of sports in the world. We are well aware that the organised sports create self image, build up human personality, bring emotional benefits and develop physio-social skills in life.

 There is no doubt that the world is full of many greedy, wicked, immoral and corrupt people in almost all the professions and fields of life.  Mafia groups are playing hell to amass wealth and gather muscle power to control others. However there are still good people who stand for truthful life.  

I remember my old days when I captained the Divisional Football team of Northern Railways in India for five years. I am talking about 50 years back. Our coaches never dared to share even the names of doping drugs with the players in those days. Sense of our duty was just to play for hours together in the playgrounds with an aim to win the matches with force of our hard practice.  Gone are those good days. Unfortunately doping in sports now is not a rarely heard phenomenon in the world.

More recently, the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports, commonly referred to by the term "doping" are exuberantly in use and have stigmatized the noble profession ruthlessly. Performance enhancing drugs not only affect reputation of the player or athlete rather it affect health, fertility and life span also. In bygone days when the fittest of a nation were selected as athletes or players to combat in the bouts and matches, they were fed with traditional but balanced diets. The given treatments were considered beneficial both to health and the profession itself.  There is no doubt in my mind that the honourable profession has now been disgraced by the sports people by themselves, their coaches and carelessness on the part of governing bodies. As a result, public perception is developing as if the profession was becoming dishonest and notoriously deceitful. 

Media reports are pouring in daily. There is a big line of those sportspeople who have been found, or have admitted to, having taken illegal performance-enhancing drugs, prohibited recreational drugs or have been suspended by the dope testing bodies for becoming prey to the mandatory drug standards.

 Leaving aside other countries of the world, many athletes and sportspeople of India have recently been found positive for using performance enhancing agents. There has been a big dope scandal. Sports department has been under fire due to money bundling and other scams during Asian Games. Sports competitors who earned glorious name in the country never cared to think of the negative consequences while using and abusing the prohibited drugs during tournament meets. I believe that a few bad apples exist in every profession to spoil the whole basket. Fantasies to earn artificial name and fame exist in minds of many which play a negative part.

 Corruption seems to be prevalent everywhere. Many famous athletes in India have been detected using anabolic steroids under the supervision of competent professionals and their coaches while the others, in order to "stay in the race", resorted to self-medication on the basis of advice or information gathered in stadiums unaware of the risk they run.

 The use of performance enhancing drugs is mostly done to improve athletic performance. It is believed that in reality the users become temporarily insane during the contest and substances alleviate their exhaustion. The stimulants are used to increase the physical power a dozen times at the risk of insanity. However the use of drugs to enhance performance is considered unethical and illegal.  

 Performance enhancing drugs over the counter are freely available with chemist shops without any prescription in various countries.  Many chemists have been detected in cities of Punjab selling the prohibited drugs over the counter like Deca durabolin,  Menabol containing  Stanozolol, Neurabol, Benzedrine, Corticosteroids, Diuretics and anabolic steroids.  These drugs are sometimes sold 100 times more than their normal price.  Not to talk about sale of steroids at Patiala only without prescription, astonishingly such drugs are freely available at chemist shops throughout India.  

Due to doping scams, many national and international coaches have been shown the way out of their profession in India. There is reshuffling in different ministries and sports departments. Doping athletes feel ashamed with teary eyes. Once the proudly visible gold medalists laughing on TV screens are now saving their skins to show their horrible faces in public.  It is speculated that many of them will lose jobs.   

 It is most dishonourable that some winners of Gold Medals in Asian and National Games brought shame to India and all this happened in connivance of responsible administrators.  The people responsible for showdown are now trying to play blame games to save their skin. Coaches say they recommended vitamin supplements only. The athletes revealed that they consumed anabolic steroids in name of vitamin supplements as recommended by their coaches. Who is right and who is wrong? Time will tell.

 

News from various countries of the world including India are pouring in these days that not only doping drugs but other illegal drugs are also being trafficked by the sportsmen and sports women into Canada and USA. This is not the end. Even the sexual harassment done to the women athletes by their sports mates, coaches and organisers of their teams is not uncommon. This is height of disgraceful character of the players and the athletes.

 Keeping in view the ever increasing pollution in the field of sports there is an emergent need to educate our young athletes, their parents, coaches and sports organizers to wakeup. Awareness about all kinds of disastrous drugs must be created through educational institutions, seminars, pamphlets and media groups. Instead of becoming a problem, the sports people must become part of the solution. The Governments must rise to the occasion to stop shameful corruption in sports and elsewhere. (Dr Raghbir Singh Bains is long time drug therapist and community activist. He can be reached at: 604-599-1314).

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

NRI NEWS:

 

Dr. Raghbir Singh Bains O.B.C
M.A. LL.B. Ph.D
, Surrey, B.C. Canada.

Dr Raghbir Singh Bains