The Australian Government Solicitator has ruled that a secret pilot program involving the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) and Medicare was illegal. ASADA had been reviewing government Medicare prescription records and cross-referencing them with names of athletes in an effort to catch athletes using prohibited substances. Not surprisingly to anyone, the Government Solicitator determined that ASADA illegally violated athlete privacy and doctor-patient confidentiality (“Secret athlete drug probe ‘illegal’, says Government Solicitor,” May 20).
An ASADA spokesperson was unapologetic about the illegality of their methods and privacy issues involved. After all, the ASADA illegal invasion of medical privacy program was a “world first” and apparently justified because it was “aimed at catching drug cheats who might otherwise escape detection.”
The spokesperson even bragged that they were deserving of an apology for the “embarrassment” and “difficult position” placed on ASADA by revelations of the illegal program.
ASADA continues to work with Customs and other agencies including the Australian Federal Police, but has now been forced to scrap the pilot program. It was a world first and part of a suite of measures aimed at catching drug cheats who might otherwise escape detection.
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Insisting ASADA had acted in good faith, the ASADA spokeswoman said the agency had received an apology from the AGS “for any embarrassment and for the difficult position in which this has placed ASADA”.
Sometimes people within anti-doping agencies feel their moral authority justifies their unfair, and sometimes illegal, persecution of athletes in their pursuit of integrity in sports.
Kate Ellis, the new Australian Sports Minister, was considerably more reasonable in her comments to the press, acknowledging the anti-doping agencies must also play by the rules too.
Ms Ellis, who spoke at a meeting of world anti-doping investigators in Sydney recently, at which ASADA is understood to have outlined its methods, said the fight against performance-enhancing drugs needed to be tough but fair.
“If athletes are drug cheats then we will use every fair and legal avenue to ensure they get caught and appropriately sanctioned,” Ms Ellis said.
About the author
Millard writes about anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs and their use and impact in sport and society. He discusses the medical and non-medical uses of anabolic-androgenic steroids while advocating a harm reduction approach to steroid education.
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