It was a shame the sports medicine conference planned for UCD last night had to be cancelled. One lecture entitled Should we provide a Needle Exchange Programme for users of Anabolic Steroids in Sport might have provoked interesting debate.

According to Dr Rob Dawson, the Scottish GP working in Newcastle who was scheduled to give the lecture, 60 to 70 per cent of people accessing the needle exchange programme in his community are anabolic steroid users. He is in favour of providing needles to athletes who are injecting the drugs. "The athletes run the same risks (as other drug users)," he says. "Providing the needles gives you a chance to see the drugs they are using and minimise the risk."

Dawson argues that the current testing procedures carried out by governing bodies are not working and probably never will.

"Anabolic steroids are now the third most commonly offered drug to school children," he says. "And when you hear of Americans building pressure chambers so that athletes can simulate altitude training you have to wonder where the line is now drawn. What is the difference in doing that and taking EPO?"