10 years in prison for doping in Austria. Interesting...

moray_gub

micron wrote:

10 years is the maximum sentence isn't it? Presumably there's a sliding scale for first offences? Whilst a 10 year sentence for a first offence smacks of taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut, this is the way the world is going - WADA are pushing for the UK to criminalise doping in sport ahead of the 2012 Olympics but you can bet that the pressures from the big money sports like football will keep it off the agenda. But I agree with Tusher, at some point sporting fraud has a nasty habit of tipping over into something more serious like the death of an athlete and, like it or not, fraud and crimes against property have always been regarded as more serious than crimes against the person.

Disagree sporting fraud is and always will be small beer crimes against the person like paedophilia,murder,rape crimes of that nature etc will always be the main focus of judicial policies.

teagar

I think it's reasonable to suggest that cheating in professional sport, where substantial sums of money are won or lost on the basis of the results, is considered criminal, in the same way cheating in business is considered criminal.

There are rules, (laws, effectively, if you are a professional in that industry), which you need to abide by. It's no different if your industry is bicycle racing or business.

Whether it's a prisonable offence? Debateable.

I think making doctors who are complicit in illegal doping, administering drugs for occasions for which they were not designed for, very responsible, with tough sanctions would perhaps be more beneficial than going for the cyclists. Then again, perhaps the only change would b more injuries/deaths caused by poor doping administration.

Who knows.

Le Commentateur

It's part of the war against organised crime, result/bet-fixing and manufacture and supply of counterfeit versions of drugs.