The use of doping is an "infringement of both the ethics of sport and that of medical science."
The term derives from the English word "dope": it initially indicated a mixture of wine and tea drunk regularly by American slaves to stay active and work.
Doping is not a recent phenomenon, since ancient times it has been resorted to substances and practices to try to improve sports performance; already in the Olympics of 668 BC the use of exciting substances (such as hallucinogenic mushrooms) is reported.
Galen (130-200 AD) describes in his writings the substances that Roman athletes took to improve their performance.
If in ancient civilizations it was used mushrooms, plants and stimulating drinks, with the development of pharmacology and the pharmaceutical industry in the nineteenth century we witness a spread of substances such as alcohol, strychnine, caffeine, opium, nitroglycerin and trimethyl (substance which is due to the first known death from doping, that of the cyclist Linton in 1886).
and in some cases even blood. Athletes who test positive are disqualified for a shorter or longer period; in cases of relapse it can lead to disqualification for life.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and national sports federations collaborated in 1998 to found the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA www.wada-ama.org), an organization that jointly with the IOC funds and collaborates with nations committed to developing programs for the detection and control of athletic doping.
The "World Anti-Doping Agency performs its duties by constantly compiling and updating a list of substances and methods that are incompatible with the ideals of sport and which should be banned in athletic competition. It is also responsible for the development and validation of new , and scientifically valid, identification tests, as well as the implementation of effective international programs, in official and unofficial competitions, for the screening of athletes.
In addition to this international effort, a number of countries, including the United States, have formed national anti-doping agencies, organized in a similar way to WADA, to monitor and control sports doping nationwide; the same agencies set up research programs to develop even more effective tests to detect prohibited substances and methods.
In US agencies, this national anti-doping effort is coordinated by the United States Anti-Doping Agency.
WADA implemented its program on drug control in sport by issuing and continuously updating the World Anti-Doping Code, which includes a list of prohibited substances and methods.
and compounds stimulating the central nervous system (amphetamines, cocaine, ephedrine, metilephedrine), as well as the alteration of normal blood chemistry parameters.
