Parents recruited to stop kids from taking illegal supplements

Children as young as 12 are using illegal supplements and authorities now want parents to become leaders in the fight against drugs in sport. Young athletes are being targeted due to a growing number of positive tests from tainted or banned products.

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Children as young as 12 are using illegal supplements and authorities now want parents to become leaders in the fight against drugs in sport.

Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority chief executive David Sharpe will launch the Clean Sport phone app this week to ensure young athletes won’t mistakenly take illicit drugs or banned substances.

The unprecedented campaign targets parents of young sporting stars at a grassroots level and is a response to kids testing positive after inadvertently using “supermarket supplements” that are either tainted or on the World Anti-Doping Association’s banned substance list.

“Our goal is to make sure no one tests positive, unless they’re an outright cheat,” Mr Sharpe said.

Children as young as 12 were taking illegal or banned “supermarket supplements” to help them in sports. Picture: iStock

Mr Sharpe said ASADA has evidence of illicit drug use among children as young as 12.

“If you look at what we know from (information gathered by) the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission around … the age at which kids are using illicit drugs, 12 is where it is starting,” Mr Sharpe said.

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“We could go out and test country competitions and certain sports and it would be like shooting fish in a barrel.

“It’s happening at your local footy oval. I’m getting one a month (tests) come back positive to a banned supplement that is inadvertent (doping) from an off-the-shelf product.”

Mr Sharpe said, with the backing of WADA, ASADA had developed the Clean Sport app and online survey to give parents and junior sporting clubs the information to “keep kids in sport”.

“It’s about making anti-doping a part of sports culture when kids start playing sport,” he said.

“I hope our focus on education, in partnership with the sports, to punch it to grassroots, will gain the result we want.”

Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority chief executive David Sharpe said is getting tougher on kids using banned substances. Picture: Gary Ramage

Mr Sharpe said younger athletes were turning to supplements in the misguided belief they were the way to succeed in sport.

He added that the number of supplement stores in shopping centres also make it easy for them to purchase these substances.

“Young athletes go to the shopping centres where the big supplements stores are and they want to get ready for the game on the weekend and so they go and take supplements,” he said.

“They don’t know what is in the supplements, nor have they had education, so they could be taking something that is banned.

“They are not aware of how to check if that supplement is on the WADA substance list.

“With this program, every single athlete, every single parent, should be able to get into the app and punch the supplement in and find out exactly what they’re about to take.

“The message to parents is, ‘if you want to be aware of what’s happening, get online because you now have the information at your fingertips. There’s so many resources at the high end.

“The NRL has education and welfare programs … but when you dig deep into the lower levels, the grassroots, they don’t have access to the information and education.”

Originally published as Parents recruited to stop kids from taking illegal supplements