Senator worried over steroid abuse in Trinidad and Tobago

INDEPENDENT Senator Dr Varma Deyalsingh expressed alarm over individuals in this country injecting animal hormones (steroids) to try to enhance their physiques, on Monday as the Senate debated the Anti-Doping in Sports (Amendment) Bill, 2023. The bill lets TT comply with the standards of the World Anti-Doping Code.

Tracing a history of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) talking over the doping compliance role of the International Olympic Committee, Deyalsingh said TT must keep up its awareness of the various means of doping in the wider world.

"People were actually taking out your red blood cells, storing it, freezing it and giving you back."

He related local examples of doping.

"We know Trinidad, it is a country where even in Carnival doctors and healthcare-givers have been approached by persons, 'Doc, I want to buff up for Carnival.'

"They have been asked to get anabolic steroids. Some ladies come and they want weight-loss medication."

Deyalsingh warned people in TT to be careful of using such substances.

"There are things out there circulating that we would be surprised at.

"I remember once a patient came to me telling me that they got an anabolic steroid that was actually a veterinary medicine which was made for - I don't know - it was cows or pigs. They got that and they were using that, quite willingly." He said the patient had said a doctor had told him that this was what was available.

"We have to be aware. There are things out there that we have to look at what people are willing to put themselves through to look good or to win competitions."

Deyalsingh said international sports have witnessed sports cheats who abuse doping, despite WADA's best efforts.

He cited an author saying a sharp increase in doping cases globally meant banning efforts had significantly failed.

"In the Cold War era in East Germany there were young female athletes who were injected with male hormones and anabolic steroids, all in the name of international prestige through success in sports. Twenty years later many still suffer from the after effects, severe physical illness and disabilities.

"They were doping for gold, to show the world they were better."

He lamented that competitive sports have been infiltrated by doping in a bid by certain athletes/sportsmen to win at all costs.

The Senate unanimously passed the bill, which had been passed with amendments earlier this month in the Senate.