Illicit Drugs in Sport. National Education & Action Plan

Transcription

1 Illicit Drugs in Sport National Education & Action Plan Contents 1. Preamble 1 2. Objectives 1 3. Education and Prevention 2 a) Supporting education and prevention in sport 2 b) Supporting education and prevention in the community through sport 2 4. Detecting and deterring use of illicit drugs by athletes 3 a) Testing 3 b) Rehabilitation and counselling 4 5. Developing an evidence base for future directions through ongoing research 5

2 1) Preamble Australians are concerned about the use of illicit drugs in sport and in the broader community. Use of illicit drugs is not only harmful to athletes, it brings sport into disrepute, and use by high profile athletes sets a poor example for other members of the community for whom they are role models. One of the key objectives of The National Drug Strategy includes preventing the uptake of harmful drug use, and reducing drug-related harm to individuals, families and the community. Consistent with this approach, the Australian Government has developed the $20.1 million Illicit Drugs in Sport - National Education & Action Plan (the Plan) to help tackle illicit drug use in partnership with National Sporting Organisations (NSOs) recognised by the Australian Sports Commission. The Plan s development included consultation with the Australian National Council on Drugs (ANCD). The Australian Government acknowledges the work of a number of Australian sports in establishing and resourcing their own illicit drug detection and prevention practices. The Government s approach builds on this and further provides the opportunity for NSOs which have limited illicit drug testing and detection capacity to apply for Government funding to also build or enhance their detection and prevention regimes. Importantly, the National Education & Action Plan is also underpinned by targeted education and prevention initiatives, which will aid prevention and education for all participating NSOs as well as the broader community. 2) Objectives The Plan is based on the following objectives: Prevention of use of illicit drugs in elite sport through education programs targeted at athletes, coaches and administrators; Harnessing the power of positive sporting role models to help deliver community education and prevention initiatives about the harms associated with illicit drug use at the community level; Support to detect and deter use of illicit drugs by athletes. NSOs can apply to the Australian Government for funding to help conduct out of competition testing for illicit drugs and results management; and Developing an evidence base for future directions through ongoing research. Page 1 of 6

3 3) Education and Prevention a) Education and Prevention in Sport All recognised sports both professional and non-professional will have access to high quality Government funded education programs as part of the Plan. Elite athletes will have access to education programs through the Australian Institute of Sport, and through existing NSO networks. Education programs will be tailored to meet the specific needs of each sport, using strategies relevant to each group. Information on the harmful effects of illicit drug use will be presented, along with specific impacts on sport performance. Athletes, coaches and administrators will be provided with strategies to prevent use using real life scenarios, including peer pressure, as well as how to handle situations should fellow team members become involved or feel pressured to take illicit drugs. In recognition of the relationship between excessive alcohol consumption and the use of illicit drugs, education programs will be appropriately linked to the Government s strategy to address excessive alcohol in the community. In addition, education packages will be made available to participating NSOs to customise and apply to athletes, coaches and administrators, boards and management according to the specific needs of their sport. Assistance with the development and delivery of customised education programs will be available to NSOs, which will include: education resources including information materials, presentations, audio visual aids such as DVDs, activities and various other education strategies; provision of ongoing support from a centralised point to assist sporting organisations access to a network of presenters and e-learning opportunities to provide flexible education opportunities for the entire sporting community; establishing an education network that will allow sports to work with each other and experts in the field of illicit drugs; and establishing effective links between education and rehabilitation support to ensure the highest level of support and rehabilitation is available to athletes identified to have engaged in illicit drug use. b) Supporting education and prevention in the community through sport Sport has the potential to contribute positively to address the harmful effects of illicit drug use in the broader community. The sport sector reaches the majority of the Australian population in some fashion, either through the performance of elite athletes or directly at grass roots level. Central to the Plan, the Australian Government will develop and implement community education and prevention initiatives that help tackle illicit drug use in the broader community in partnership with national, state and local sporting organisations. Page 2 of 6

4 Recognising that they are uniquely placed to influence the Australian community, particularly our young people, high profile athletes who are positive role models will be included to support the grass roots community education efforts. Appropriately targeted messages will be delivered to the general Australian community through a range of activities including: using the medium of sport to enhance initiatives in secondary schools; coaching clinics for junior athletes (15-17 years); information packs and support resources for use in local sporting organisations and access to e-learning modules; support of local mass participation events; and working in partnership with elite sports people to promote appropriately targeted messages regarding illicit drug use The Australian Government will work with experts in the field and the sporting community to develop and implement the initiatives. 4) Detecting and deterring use of illicit drugs by athletes a) Testing Testing, when linked with education, provides an additional deterrent to the use of illicit drugs. Under the Plan, NSOs can apply to the Australian Government for funding to help conduct out-of-competition testing for illicit drugs and associated results management including hearing and appeal processes and support for rehabilitation and counselling services resulting from positive tests. Funding for testing will be administered by the Australian Government through individual agreements with National Sporting Organisations. NSOs that receive Australian Government funding through this process will be required to adopt specified guidelines to ensure that testing is robust while protecting the rights of athletes and sporting organisations. Use of a drug testing agency nominated by the Government is also a condition of funding. NSOs which receive Australian Government funding for testing through the Plan will be responsible for determining an appropriate sanction regime in line with specified guidelines which include the requirement that any athlete who tests positive to an illicit substance must attract an immediate sanction and that sanctions should graduate in severity upon any subsequent positive test. Activation of a suspended penalty can be no later than at the point of a second positive test. Each sport must put in place appropriate punitive consequences, such as fines, payment penalties and competition suspension and ineligibility, as well as compulsory counselling, education and ongoing target testing as a minimum. An appropriate sanction regime will need to be approved before any Government funding will be granted. Page 3 of 6

5 Testing should be conducted in accordance with the following standards: Attachment A: List of Prohibited Substances; Attachment B: Testing Standards; Attachment C: Results Management Standards. NSOs that are funded for testing will be required to adopt privacy principles that are consistent with the Australian Government s best practice guidelines. The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) will be available to provide general guidance to individual National Sporting Organisation s in developing their respective illicit drugs framework which includes: criteria for the development of testing pools; and establishment of timely but fair results management processes including appropriate hearing forums. ASADA will also provide guidance and advice on the results of ongoing evaluation and future improvements to relevant aspects of the Plan. An independent audit agency will monitor compliance of NSOs with their approved Illicit Drugs in Sport programs. b) Rehabilitation and Counselling The Australian Government recognises the importance of establishing effective links to rehabilitation support to ensure the highest level of support and rehabilitation is available to athletes identified to have engaged in illicit drug use. Under the Plan sports will be provided with referral advice to appropriate expertise to assist in counselling and rehabilitation measures for any athletes in this situation. Given the links between substance abuse and mental health, this will include, where appropriate, mental health agencies. Funding will also be available to sports to support this element of the Plan. Page 4 of 6

6 5) Developing an evidence base for future directions through ongoing research To support an evidence based approach to illicit drug use in sport, the Australian Government will fund research involving elite athletes from both professional and non-professional sports to ascertain the following: levels of knowledge about the differences between an anti-doping policy and an illicit drugs policy; lifetime and past-12 month illicit drug use by athletes; knowledge of illicit drugs and the effects of these drugs; attitudes of athletes towards testing for illicit drugs during out of competition times as a deterrent to illicit drug use; attitudes of athletes to towards the adoption of an illicit drug policy by their sport as an effective deterrent to possessing, trafficking or using illicit drugs out of competition; knowledge of support services for users of illicit drugs; and the types of resources they use to obtain information about illicit drugs if they chose to find out more. Page 5 of 6