FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT: Brian Blake 202-395-6618
Wednesday, March 5, 2003

WHITE HOUSE DRUG CZAR LAUDS NEWLY APPROVED WORLD ANTI-DOPING CODE

ENCOURAGES U.S. PROFESSIONAL SPORTS LEAGUES TO EMBRACE NEW CODE

(Washington, D.C.) —John Walters, Director of National Drug Control Policy and President Bush's "Drug Czar," today expressed his support for the "bold and decisive action" taken by delegates to the World Conference on Doping in Sport. At the conference, which finished today in Copenhagen, Denmark, the more than 1000 delegates from the Olympic movement, sporting agencies, and 80 governments approved the first-ever World Anti-Doping Code. The Code will govern and harmonize doping rules across sports for international competitions.

The drugs covered by the Code include not only performance enhancing drugs, but also drugs that violate the spirit of sport, or jeopardize athletes' health and safety. "I am pleased that the delegates have acknowledged the harms of dangerous drugs, including marijuana, to the integrity of athletic competitions," Director Walters said. "We cannot ignore the deleterious effects of these drugs on the health and welfare of athletes. Whether they want to be or not, athletes are role models to their fans, including the young athletes who seek to emulate them. Using any prohibited drug, performance enhancing or otherwise, sends the wrong message to the young athletes of the world."

Director Walters called upon professional leagues in the United States to adopt the new Code. "All people who support healthy and fair sports competition should embrace this new Code. Our professional sports leagues cannot hide from the fact that doping is a visible and dangerous example to our youth. The time is long past that professional sports leagues in this country seriously address this problem. It is unconscionable that professional athletes using these substances are getting sick and dying and yet many of their teammates, coaches, and league officials still just look the other way. The code signed today can serve as a model for professional sports leagues. Professional leagues that look away run the danger of embracing pharmacology, not athletic ability. By adopting the Code they can create a safer, more level playing field for competition and set a positive example for fans and especially young people."