Europe Has Few Drug Problems in Sports

Drug abuse in sports, a growing problem in America, appears to have barely touched Europe.

Random drug tests among athletes have been instituted from London to Milan, and officials familiar with the results say not one has turned up positive.

“I do think it’s some kind of a mental state,” said Herman Belifante, spokesman for the Dutch Sports Federation. “In Europe, there’s a lot of resistance to this kind of business.”

Not everyone is sure it will stay this way.

This week, for example, police said they would question British cricket star Ian Botham about reports he used drugs during a charity marathon. Botham was fined about $150 last year for marijuana possession and later balked at agreeing to drug testing.

Generally, though, several European sports officials felt their athletes were relatively free of street drugs such as cocaine and marijuana. Alcohol and tobacco were more of a concern, they said.

“The drug scene in Switzerland is considerably smaller than, say, in the United States,” said Dr. Peter Jenoure, president of the Swiss Society for Sports Medicine.

The smell of marijuana may be common on some U.S. city streets, but here, you have to keep it well under wraps,” Jenoure said. “The drug mentality hasn’t taken hold.”

“It is a question of different lifestyles,” said Emanuel Rose, chairman of the Danish Athletics Union’s doping control committee. “Danish athletes know that drugs cut proficiency in sports.”

Drug testing in Europe encompasses organizations from professional soccer to amateur golf and requires athletes to submit to spot urinalysis. Most of the testing, however, is not aimed at detecting marijuana and cocaine but steroids and other performance-enhancing substances.

Tennis is an exception. This summer, testing will be introduced at the sport’s biggest tournaments to try to stamp out heroine, cocaine and amphetamine use.

Belgian cycling long has been marred by scandals involving performance-enhancers but, since doping tests were instituted in 1965, not one rider has tested positive for street drugs, according to Bert Dirix, chairman of the Belgian Cycling Federation’s medical commission.

Cycling is a big-money sport in Europe, with top riders making upwards of $100,000 in endorsement and sponsorship contracts.

Pay for top soccer players ranges in the same area, and the very best--like France’s captain, Michel Platini--can earn $300,000 to $500,000 a year.

But that’s still far less than the average yearly pay for U.S. baseball, football, basketball and hockey players. And that difference is another reason cited by some for drug problems being minimal.

“Some players who played in the United States and now in France may want to keep up with the semblance of an NBA lifestyle, but there isn’t that kind of money around,” said one French basketball league player, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

A good French basketball player may make $50,000, a top U.S. player in the league maybe twice that much.

” . . . If there is a problem, it is more likely to be alcoholism,” the player said.

Glenn Kirton, spokesman for the Football Association, England’s governing body of amateur and professional soccer, said: “Cocaine is not a fashionable drug here and even if it was, its continued use is going to affect performance.”

In the seven years the Football Association has randomly tested athletes, Kirton said there has been no evidence of marijuana or cocaine use.

“People who come into pro football (soccer) are generally working-class people,” he said. “They don’t think of cocaine. Alcohol is the drug of choice.”

Kirton said the average English soccer player “will have a pint or two” after a game, “but we do not perceive it as a problem.”

Tobacco, on the other hand, is a problem.

“We are strongly against smoking,” he said. “The English team (for this summer’s World Cup) is known as the ‘No-Smoking Team.’ ”

To be eligible for a spot on the national team, Kirton said, a player must pledge not to smoke.

Though the sports scene may be relatively drug free now, some authorities are worried that the narcotics problems of the United States eventually will hit Europe.

British customs agents last year seized a record amount of heroin and cocaine, with a street value of $98 million, and officials said wider use of drugs might be on the way.

“There are signs the cocaine market in the United States has reached saturation levels and drug dealers are looking toward Europe for new markets,” said Richard Lawrence, chief investigation officer for British Customs.