Euphoria

• 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.

• The country’s popular former leader, Imran Khan, has been sentenced three separate times in recent weeks to lengthy jail terms.
• Read more:
  Pakistan election: the military has long meddled in the country's politics – this year will be no different

Khan’s downfall

• Khan, a former cricket star, led the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to victory in the 2018 elections.
• But he lost the support of the military and was ousted in April 2022 through a no confidence vote in the National Assembly.

ten years in prison for breaching the Official Secrets Act
14 years in prison for failing to disclose gifts received from foreign leaders, selling them and then not disclosing the amounts earned
seven years in prison for being in an un-Islamic marriage.

• The electoral commission made things even more difficult by blocking the party’s use of the cricket bat symbol to identify its candidates.
• In a country with low levels of literacy, many people rely on these symbols when they cast their ballots.

The return of an exiled former leader

• Sharif owes his initial entry into politics to the military regime led by General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s.
• His relationship with the military since the 1990s, however, has vacillated between being cordial and antagonistic.
• In fact, Sharif blamed former military and spy chiefs for orchestrating his ouster from power in 2017 when he was convicted of corruption.
• As such, Pakistan appears to be heading for a coalition government, which will have to address several challenges facing the country.

A struggling economy and spiralling inflation

• Pakistan’s GDP growth rate has fallen from 5.8% in 2021 to about 0.3% in 2023.
• Rates increased from 8.9% in 2021 to a whopping 29.7% in December 2023.
• Meanwhile, the rate of people living in poverty in Pakistan has climbed to nearly 40%, more than five percentage points higher than fiscal year 2022.
• A small minority of people in private gatherings are even questioning the legitimacy of the idea of Pakistan.

Samina Yasmeen 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.

• Another reason might be the drug content of the bones themselves, if the deceased was a fentanyl or tramadol user.
• The drug is reported in both Guinea and Liberia, which share porous land borders with Sierra Leone, making drug trafficking easy.
• The danger of the drug is twofold: the risk of self-injury to the drug taker and the highly addictive nature of the drug itself.
• The effectiveness of legislation alone is questionable, and many of those who attend the very limited rehabilitation centres return to drug use.

• “Make at-home wellness accessible to everyone,” said a spokesperson for Komowa Wellness.
• Welcome to Komowa.”
  From the initial design to the final product, each step is meticulously planned by the expert team at Komowa Wellness to ensure that its saunas and other wellness products redefine the standards of luxury and efficiency.
• The health and wellness brand prioritizes providing individuals access to excellent self-care tools that boost longevity and essence from the comfort of home.
• One of the top-rated products that highlights the union between comfort, wellness, and luxury that defines Komowa Wellness’ is the brand’s Auroom Mira S 2 person outdoor sauna.