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Performance-enhancing drugs can be broken into several basic categories: stimulants, anabolic agents, peptide hormones, masking agents, glucocorticosteroids, beta-2 agonists, narcotics and cannabinoids. Within those categories, however, there's a dog's breakfast of naturally occurring and man-made drugs, from things as simple as insulin and testosterone to complex designer drugs like tetrahydrogestrinine, the anabolic steroid, nicknamed "The Clear," that brought down the likes of U.S. sprinter Marion Jones.

Here's a look at the types of illegal drugs banned since then:

Stimulants: The granddaddy of Olympic drugs, stimulants were first detected by Manfred Donike at the 1972 Munich Games. Athletes use them to boost their heart and breathing rates, leading to increased alertness and physical activity.

Running the gamut from caffeine and ephedrine to cocaine and amphetamines, they're still in use. At the 2006 Games, Russian biathlete Olga Pyleva was stripped of a silver medal for using carphedron, a stimulant, and a Russian runner, Roman Usov, was found with the same drug in a qualifier for the 2008 Beijing Games.

Anabolic steroids: These at one time were the most serious and problematic drugs in sport. Known officially as anabolic androgenic steroids, they are synthetic variants of testosterone, and fall into two categories: those that can be produced in the body naturally and those that cannot.

Their main function, as far as athletes are concerned, is to help them build strength and speed. But they can also have a profoundly negative health effect on those who abuse them, leading up to and including sterility.

Some of the common forms are stanozolol (which Canada's Ben Johnson tested for in 1988), nandrolone, furazabol (which Johnson claimed he was taking), and methyltestosterone, which led to Ukranian track champion Lyudmyla Blonska earning a lifetime ban and being stripped of a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Games.

Steroids also can be modified in backyard and clandestine labs, and anti-doping agencies are constantly on the lookout for variants. The discovery of the most famous of those, THG, led to the BALCO affair.

Peptide Hormones: The current flavour of the month, these include the blood booster erythropoietin, human growth hormone and insulin. These hormones are created in glands and organs and help regulate certain bodily functions.

In its clinical form, EPO is used to treat people with kidney disease. Growth hormone is primarily used to treat children with stunted growth and for those with diseases that cause muscle wastage. Insulin is used to treat diabetes.

Athletes, however, use them for building muscle and endurance. The most common one is EPO, which boosts the oxygen-carrying capacity of red blood cells.

Until 2002 no successful test existed for EPO, but it now has been mapped and scientists can detect designer EPO relatively effectively. (The unmasking of two Russian cross-country skiers as EPO users is what led to Canadian Beckie Scott being upgraded to a gold medal after she initially finished third at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City.) The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) says it has developed a test for growth hormone, but the jury is still out; there has not yet been a successful test.

Masking agents: As antidoping officials became better at screening for drugs, athletes looked for better ways to hide them. Ergo, the rise of masking agents, the most common of which are diuretics. Diuretics are used for weight control and also for treating renal failure. In their abused form, athletes use them to flood their body with fluids, helping to not only void the drugs they've taken, but also to dilute them to a level below which they may not test positive. They are banned from use both in and out of competition.

Beta-2 Agonists: If anabolic steroids boost muscle and stimulants boost heart and breathing rates, Beta-2 agonists have the ability to do both. Largely developed to treat asthma, this class of drugs includes bronchial dilators, which help to relax airway passages. Depending on how they are taken, Beta-2 agonists can also act as stimulants or muscle builders.

WADA has trouble regulating this class of drugs because there are a number of athletes who legitimately need asthma inhalers and other such devices. To counter misuse, WADA insists that athletes legitimately needing them file for a "temporary use exemption", issued after medical assessment.

Cannabinoids: Many sports figures — including former Olympic snowboarding champion Ross Rebagliati — would argue there is no clinical evidence that psychoactive drugs such as hashish and marijuana enhance an athlete's performance.

There's anecdotal evidence, however, that athletes do use them to recover from exercise, calm nerves and reduce tension, but the biggest reason they're banned is because they present a poor image to the public. Unlike other drugs that earn an automatic two-year suspension, however, the first-time detection of cannabinoids gets an athlete a reprimand. Second-time detection results in a suspension.

Narcotic analgesics: This class of drugs masks pain. It runs the gamut from codeine (included in prescriptions such as Tylenol 3, which is not banned) to morphine and heroin, which are.

They're banned because they can allow an athlete to train beyond the body's natural threshold for pain. Although there may be a small benefit to an athlete's performance, this class of drugs falls more squarely into the category of presenting a medical danger if misused.

Glucocorticosteroids: These drugs are used as anti-inflammatories and to control pain. They can be used to treat asthma and rheumatoid arthritis, as well as inflammation of muscles. A common inhaled version is Pulmicort, which is used to treat asthma. These drugs can increase oxygen transport and they also can lighten the load, so to speak, so athletes feel less pain and can push harder.

Like narcotic analgesics, they aren't banned out-of-competition. But like those and beta-2 agonists, athletes who need them during competition must apply for a therapeutic use exemption.

jefflee@vancouversun.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 1:50 am and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.