Outside NIS Patiala, you can buy banned drugs without prescription

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, July 2

Almost everyday, the athletes from India's premier institute, NIS Patiala, line up at the nearby chemist shops to procure "instant power boosters".

They get almost every drug at these medical stores, with or without prescription. All it takes is a few hundred bucks to buy the drug of your choice.

A Tribune team, posing as sportspersons, exposed the malpractice by buying several banned drugs without any prescription. Drugs with steroids like testosterone, nandrolone injection, danazol, menabolol and stenozolol and some growth hormones could be bought from several medical stores in the city without any prescription or billing.

As we bought the drugs at a shop, a few athletes from the NIS bought special coffee pouches which, according to the seller, "is full of ginseng extract and multi vitamins" that provide instant power. "I am using it on trial basis every Sunday,” an athlete said. Ginseng supplements, which are believed to have been brought from outside India, are easily available. Not many know that they contain anabolic steroids. Ginseng supplements are now available even at homeopathy stores, despite the 2011 controversy when several top athletes blamed ginseng after testing positive.

Raising a question mark over the claims of the Punjab government and Sports Authority of India's (SAI) awareness drives, drugs are available with chemists, Medical Representatives (MR) and even through the internet. "We can check drugs meant for drug addicts but have no knowledge about sports drugs," said a senior police officer.

A former SAI officer confirmed that, in 2004, before the Athens Olympics, top athletes consumed a drug similar to neurobol or manbol. The athletes also took winstrol, again a banned substance, now unavailable.

Most Indian athletes do not expect million dollar contracts or lucrative sponsorships. Careers in medicine, civil services or engineering are more respected. Yet for the tens of thousands who come from impoverished backgrounds and vie for positions on national teams, good performances can ensure government jobs that provide financial security to them and their families.

Senior Indian athletics coach Bahadur Singh told The Tribune that though checks and periodic raids by NADA have increased, both on established athletes and the beginners, "some fools continue to use drugs to bag a job or an award". "Many athletes run away during dope tests. If they do not show up, they can face a four-year suspension," he said, claiming many careers have been hit badly due to drug use.

A national camper says that recent foreign exposures have helped many players to discover masking agents (drugs that help mask chemicals during dope test).

"When it comes to NIS campers, we are very strict and once a banned substance is found during testing, we simply send the athlete home. Recently a centre of excellence player was sent home after a positive NADA report," says Executive Director, NIS, SS Roy.

"I am 100 percent sure that no athlete can escape testing as now in-competition and out-of-competition tests are a regular feature", he says. "Those who run away from tests are banned if they do not undergo the test."