Olympic high

It seems that EPO and nandrolone won't be the only drug problems that Sydney will have to contend once the Olympic Games begin next September. Reports this week have indicated that a lot of the Olympic revellers will want to get stoned.

Drugs experts have admitted that recreational drug use is expected to skyrocket during the Games and warned that the Olympic rings were already being stamped onto LSD and ecstasy tablets.

Paul Dillon of Australia's Drug and Alcohol Research Centre has said that large drug busts of cocaine and ecstasy in recent weeks may be linked to an expected increase in drugs coming into Australia for the Games.

"Sydney is going to be a party city around the Olympics," he says. "People are going to find different ways of partying. I would imagine alcohol use will skyrocket during that time and so will recreational drug use. Four years ago, there were increases in Atlanta of recreational drug use, particularly the party drugs."

Dillon admitted that the issue was something Olympic authorities were reluctant to face. "We want to be seen as a clean city as far as performance-enhancing drugs, but also other drugs, as well," he said. A spokesman for the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) said the issue was not a matter for them.