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WADA and Carabinieri NAS sign partnership in significant boost for anti-doping

2015-02-09 11:12 WADA

February 5, 2015 - The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the Comando Carabinieri per la Tutela della Salute (NAS)* have today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will provide a significant boost for anti-doping and the rights of clean athletes worldwide.

Within both parties’ respective mandates, the MOU promises to foster cooperation in areas of common interest relating to the control of pharmaceutical products and banned substances that have the potential to be abused by athletes. The partnership aims to prevent threats to athletes’ health and to protect the integrity of sporting competition.

The agreement – which highlights the importance of the threat of doping to public health – will include cooperation in the collection, storage and sharing of information and expertise in areas that relate to the trafficking of prohibited substances. Both WADA and NAS will work closely to identify trends observed in the fields of doping and trafficking.

The MOU further supports the national and international anti-doping measures required of States Parties by the UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport, which has now been ratified by 177 countries worldwide. It will also strengthen anti-doping in Italy, a country that has already introduced legislation which criminalizes the possession and trafficking of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs).

WADA Director General, David Howman: “WADA is of the opinion that more often than not behind a doping athlete exists the influence of an entourage member or unscrupulous individual who provides doping substances to the athlete. This partnership with CCTS will allow us to share crucial anti-doping information and, in doing so, minimize the chances of banned substances reaching the sporting world.”

“WADA is grateful to CCTS for their commitment to clean sport. This partnership sends out a clear message that there is unity amongst organizations across the world to put the rights of clean athletes first. This is an important message not just for sport, but for the health and wellbeing of society as a whole.”

NAS, Major General, Cosimo Piccinno: "Signature of the agreement with WADA is a strong signal of ’zero tolerance‘ and will help to increase significantly the level of prevention and repression of the use of prohibited substances and methods in the context of sport competitions. The partnership between WADA and NAS comes at a crucial moment, just a month after the introduction of the revision of the World Anti-Doping Code that, together with the renewed international standard for controls and investigations (ISTI), exhorts signatories (ADOs) to focus on investigations and information gathering techniques, to improve their anti-doping programs."

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