Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/28788
Title: 'Blurred lines': Anti-doping, national policies, and the performance and image enhancing drug (PIED) market in Belgium and The Netherlands
Contributor(s): van de Ven, Katinka  (author)orcid 
Publication Date: 2016-06
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/28788
Abstract: Background Due to a growing awareness of the consumption of performance and image enhancing drugs (PIEDs), and the perceived associated adverse health effects, PIEDs have increasingly come to be viewed as a serious public health problem. However, there seems to be a tendency amongst policymakers to frame recreational PIED use as an issue within sport, and to call for the same types of policies that are being used in anti-doping. This paper explores the ways in which national PIED policies in The Netherlands and Belgium and anti-doping measures are intertwined, and how the different approaches adopted in each nation are impacting on the illicit PIED market.
Methods This article draws on two years of fieldwork in various bodybuilding settings, 47 semi-structured interviews with individuals who are directly or indirectly involved in the PIED market, and a content analysis of 64 PIED-dealing cases initiated by criminal justice agencies in The Netherlands and Belgium.
Findings The data indicates that both countries do not appear to be successful in disrupting the illicit PIED market. In Belgium the demand for PIEDs seems to be unaffected by the threat of criminal penalties or disciplinary measures and continued enforcement may worsen present health risks. However, due to the limited priority of controlling PIED production and/or distribution in The Netherlands, a large underground culture has developed, stimulated by the Internet, in which individuals and groups manufacture and distribute their own PIEDs. In both countries, the intertwinement of national efforts to address recreational PIED use, with sport policy, hinders the exploration of alternative measures and/or the inclusion of other substances and using populations in prevention and harm reduction initiatives.
Conclusion Both the regulation and law enforcement practices around PIEDs in Belgium and the limited priority in The Netherlands may be contributing to increasing and exacerbating existing harms.
Publication Type: Journal Article
Source of Publication: Performance Enhancement & Health, 4(3-4), p. 94-102
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Place of Publication: Netherlands
ISSN: 2211-2669
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 160504 Crime Policy
160299 Criminology not elsewhere classified
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 440702 Crime policy
420606 Social determinants of health
440214 Sociological studies of crime
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 940499 Justice and the Law not elsewhere classified
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: 200413 Substance abuse
200201 Determinants of health
230403 Criminal justice
Peer Reviewed: Yes
HERDC Category Description: C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal
Appears in Collections:Journal Article
School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

Files in This Item:
1 files
File SizeFormat 
Show full item record

Page view(s)

1,092
checked on Mar 24, 2024

Download(s)

2
checked on Mar 24, 2024
Google Media

Google ScholarTM

Check


Items in Research UNE are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.