There is a framework of rules and standards to keep Singapore sports free of doping, which includes the use of both recreational drugs and performance-enhancing drugs, said Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth MCCY Eric Chua on Tuesday, Oct 4, speaking in Parliament, Mr Chua said that this aims to equip national athletes with the information, tools and values to exercise sound judgement when it comes to the use of drugs.
He added that there are two key strategies by which this is implemented - through education and prevention, as well as detection and deterrence.
Mr Chua was responding to questions by MPs Dr Wan Rizal PAP-Jalan Besar and Darryl David PAP-Ang Mo Kio on measures to protect Singapore's carded athletes from the misuse of drugs, and whether the Government or National Sports Associations NSA have programmes that regularly test national and elite athletes for recreational drug use and performance-enhancing drug use.
In 2010 the Government established Anti-Doping Singapore ADS as the national anti-doping authority in Singapore.
SportSG Sport Singapore works with ADS and the broader sporting fraternity to make sure that sport in Singapore is free of doping, and that our national athletes can be upheld as role models for Singapore and Singaporeans, said Mr Chua, who pointed out that ADS oversees a robust doping testing regime.
ADS develops and regularly reviews a test distribution plan for athletes, with higher testing frequencies for athletes deemed to be at higher risk of doping. He said that a number of factors are considered in determining the risk level of doping, such as the athlete's performance and type of sports.
The authority also relies on intelligence to identify and investigate allegations of drug abuse, including following up to conduct tests on alleged offenders, according to Mr Chua.
Education is a key preventive measure to discourage intentional or inadvertent doping, and this is done through various means, such as the mandatory completion of modules on the World Anti-Doping AgencyAnti-Doping Agency's e-learning platform and ADS working with NSAs to plan, implement and monitor programmes for athletes, said Mr Chua.
ADS provides the Check Drugs function on its website to allow athletes and support personnel to check on the prohibited status of a particular drug or substance, in order to prevent inadvertent doping, he said.
The database contains more than 9,000 medications registered in Singapore and is updated monthly. For medications not listed on the database, athletes can check with a sports physician, or with ADS directly.