Dopamine

• Last year a Melbourne Demons player, Joel Smith, and two Sydney Swans AFLW players were caught with cocaine.
• So how is cocaine considered performance enhancing, and why does it matter when they took it?

What is cocaine and is it performance enhancing?

• Once consumed, cocaine increases the level of a chemical in the brain called dopamine – a messenger molecular that is associated with pleasure and reward.
• A surge in dopamine is responsible for feelings of euphoria, heightened energy, and alertness, which makes cocaine highly sought-after for recreational purposes.
• When used during sport, cocaine is considered to have performance enhancing effects and is prohibited under the World Anti-Doping Code and listed under the Substances of Abuse Category.

Recreational (out of competition) vs performancing-enhancing (in-competition) use

• As a result, instead of a ban from competing, the court gave them 12-month conditional release orders, with no convictions recorded.
• Under the AFL’s anti-doping code, a finding of using cocaine for performance enhancement could come with a four-year ban.
• If he was found to have used it for only recreational purposes, not on game day, the ban would instead just be one or three months.

Can urine testing determine when someone took cocaine?

• Intact cocaine can remain detectable in urine for periods up to 15 days, and BZE can be detectable up to 25 days.
• To determine the date of cocaine use, the concentration of intact drug in the athlete’s urine, and possibly the BZE concentration, need to be considered.
• But there are fundamental flaws in making these comparisons to determine when an athlete took cocaine.

Why is cocaine still considered performance-enhancing?

While it’s unlikely an athlete can genuinely get an athletic edge on their rivals by taking cocaine, it is still on Sports Integrity Australia’s Prohibited List because “all prohibited substances are added to the Prohibited List because they meet two of the three following criteria”:
Athletes really are risking a lot for minimal (if any) athletic reward when they take cocaine – not just the health risks, but the possibility of getting caught with a substance that is extremely unlikely to improve their on-field performances.
Nial Wheate has previously appeared as an expert witness for an athlete accused by Sport Integrity Australia of in-competition cocaine use. Shoohb Alassadi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.