World Anti-Doping Agency President Craig Reedie warned that "more governments must pass laws criminalizing doping and information exchange needs to increase between the pharma industry and anti-doping bodies as drugs are no longer a problem exclusive to sport," according to Karolos Grohmann of REUTERS. In a statement, Reedie said that "doping had spread beyond the short confines of sport." Reedie: "What has become increasingly apparent to me ... is that doping is no longer an issue that just affects sport -- it is now as important an issue to society as it is to sport. Of that there is no doubt." Reedie said tighter contact with pharmaceutical companies would help WADA identify trends of substance abuse while also alerting anti-doping bodies of "medicinal substances in their pipeline which might have the characteristics of a substance that could be of interest to dopers." A string of positive doping tests and sanctions in recent months involving top athletes, many of them from Russia, "has again raised alarm bells among sports administrators, desperate to rid world sport of illegal drugs." Reedie: "Sport is now a hugely lucrative industry, and there is a real area of concern with drugs being counterfeited, illegally produced, trafficked and distributed -- and ultimately these drugs get in the hands of elite athletes and, increasingly, members of the public" (REUTERS, 2/2). In London, Matt Majendie wrote Toni Minichiello, the coach of the Olympic heptathlon champion, Jessica Ennis-Hill, "has called on anti-doping officials to investigate the ban imposed on the Briton’s rival Tatyana Chernova." The ban itself is backdated to July 22, 2013, "which means that Chernova can compete at this year’s World Championships in August in Beijing" (INDEPENDENT, 2/1).
