Days after deciding to hand back an Olympic gold medal Michael Johnson has called on the powers that be to introduce prison sentences in the fight against doping in sport.
"When people think 'I could go to jail for just using steroids,' then maybe that would help," said Johnson today, adding that the current system of banning athletes from the sport is not enough.
"You can safely say in the last four, five, six years the cheaters have been ahead and they have won," added the 200 and 400 metres world record-holder.
Johnson said his Sydney Olympic 4x400 metres relay team mate Antonio Pettigrew was a perfect example of how people can use performance-enhancing drugs and escape punishment unless called upon to tell the truth in court.
Pettigrew never failed a doping test but admitted last month during the trial of former coach Trevor Graham that he had used performance-enhancing drugs during his career.
"The only reason he has actually admitted to it is because he would go to jail for perjury if he did not admit to it," said the winner for five Olympic gold medals. "But people don't think about that when they decide to cheat.
"The idea that if I am caught I am going to be embarrased, my family is going to be embarrassed and I may be banned from the sport for a couple of years or maybe four years and have my contract taken away and my livelihood taken away obviously isn't enough of a deterrent," he said.
Johnson made the comments after revealing in a British newspaper column that he was returning his Sydney relay gold medal because of Pettigrew.
"I don't want it," Johnson wrote. "I feel cheated, betrayed and let down."
His office has since been flooded with calls from people praising his decision.
"Once he (Pettigrew) admitted to it, immediately I started to think whether this medal was legitimate," Johnson said. "It's not, and if it is not, it's pretty simple, we don't deserve to have it."
Johnson said it was more difficult coming to terms with the fact that someone he had thought of as a friend had cheated.
But even harder, he added, was the realisation that he would no longer be known as a five-time Olympic gold medallist.
"That is what I achieved," he said. "But now having to change that and get use to being a four-time Olympic gold medallist ...is difficult. One of my accomplishments has been taken away from me."