The third, a former body-building champion, specialises in distributing counterfeit steroids across the country from his Melbourne base. Bulk agricultural steroids are repackaged into authentic-looking vials of human product. Compiled late last year, the report warns that the use of PIEDs is rising, with drugs easily obtainable on the black market or through the Internet. The report suggests limits on the legal production of these drugs and a code of conduct for manufacturers and suppliers. Committee chairman Robert Ali told The Age he now believed the problem was even more serious than first thought.
Elite athletes are a small percentage but create a very important role model.
In March, another report from the ABCI, the Australian Illicit Drug Report, warned that existing laws were inadequate, aside from new customs penalties. It also said the Olympics would stimulate the trade. Australia's foremost drugs researcher, the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre's Paul Dillon, agrees that the performance-enhancing drugs problem is set to worsen across the community. It happened in America after the Olympic Games and it will happen here. Although he did not agree that sports drug offences should attract the same penalties as narcotics, Mr Williams pointed to changes to the Customs Act making importation of commercial quantities punishable by a five-year jail term.