Monly used and widely available OTC medications and nutritional supplements were safe and posed no short- or long-term threat to their health. Many used such products to improve their running performance, yet their risk normalized or neutralized by their presence at running expos, in running publications and at vitamin retail stores. Well aware that some substances–EPO, anabolic steroids, HGH–are banned and may be dangerous to health, these runners took for granted the surveillance and safety of products they could procure legally, under the belief that is something was not banned it would be safe. This belief makes runners vulnerable to tainted or dangerous products that are freely available and not considered harmful, even though non-elite athletes routinely feel they make Dihexa cost correct decisions and engaging in adequate self-surveillance that is required in contemporary neoliberal citizenship (Rose 1999). As such, a product recommended as an effective and legal substance by another runner or by a retail sales clerk may contain substances that are either banned by agencies such as WADA and/or may pose a serious health risk. The recent controversy over the supplement ingredient DMAA illustrates availability cannot be substituted for safety.BAY1217389 web NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptSurveill Soc. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2014 November 04.HenningPageTogether, these perceptions and knowledge gaps result in a blind spot in the internalized anti-doping gaze. Runners do the work of self-surveillance believing they are acting as good citizens by conforming to anti-doping regulations and following expert advice on how to be healthy, as far as they understand these rules and recommendations. With regard to nutritional supplements, this self-surveillance blind spot can have major negative health repercussions. WADA and its affiliates claim athlete health is a top priority, yet its policies and methods confuse non-elite runners and lull them into a false sense of security. The nonelites in this research engaged in self-surveillance and did seek to conform to the clean ideal by avoiding what they understood to be prohibited or dangerous substances. However, their knowledge of anti-doping regulations was inadequate for avoiding all but the most commonly discussed prohibited enhancement products. Relying on their incomplete and often incorrect understandings of which substances are potentially harmful, these runners may wrongly presume they are avoiding harmful PEDs by focusing their attention on supplements that are commonly found in drug stores and nutritional supplement shops. This finding demonstrates how the quest to eradicate doping in sports using the surveillancebased system of regulations and banned substances seem to work against the underlying goals of anti-doping agencies in non-elite sports populations.NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptAcknowledgmentsThe author was supported by NIDA grant (T32 DA007233); points of view are the author’s alone.
NIH Public AccessAuthor ManuscriptJ Res Adolesc. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2015 June 01.Published in final edited form as: J Res Adolesc. 2014 June 1; 24(2): 235?51. doi:10.1111/jora.12124.NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptSerious Delinquency and Gang Participation: Combining and Specializing in Drug Selling, Theft and ViolenceRachel A. Gordon, University of Illinois at Chi.Monly used and widely available OTC medications and nutritional supplements were safe and posed no short- or long-term threat to their health. Many used such products to improve their running performance, yet their risk normalized or neutralized by their presence at running expos, in running publications and at vitamin retail stores. Well aware that some substances–EPO, anabolic steroids, HGH–are banned and may be dangerous to health, these runners took for granted the surveillance and safety of products they could procure legally, under the belief that is something was not banned it would be safe. This belief makes runners vulnerable to tainted or dangerous products that are freely available and not considered harmful, even though non-elite athletes routinely feel they make correct decisions and engaging in adequate self-surveillance that is required in contemporary neoliberal citizenship (Rose 1999). As such, a product recommended as an effective and legal substance by another runner or by a retail sales clerk may contain substances that are either banned by agencies such as WADA and/or may pose a serious health risk. The recent controversy over the supplement ingredient DMAA illustrates availability cannot be substituted for safety.NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptSurveill Soc. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2014 November 04.HenningPageTogether, these perceptions and knowledge gaps result in a blind spot in the internalized anti-doping gaze. Runners do the work of self-surveillance believing they are acting as good citizens by conforming to anti-doping regulations and following expert advice on how to be healthy, as far as they understand these rules and recommendations. With regard to nutritional supplements, this self-surveillance blind spot can have major negative health repercussions. WADA and its affiliates claim athlete health is a top priority, yet its policies and methods confuse non-elite runners and lull them into a false sense of security. The nonelites in this research engaged in self-surveillance and did seek to conform to the clean ideal by avoiding what they understood to be prohibited or dangerous substances. However, their knowledge of anti-doping regulations was inadequate for avoiding all but the most commonly discussed prohibited enhancement products. Relying on their incomplete and often incorrect understandings of which substances are potentially harmful, these runners may wrongly presume they are avoiding harmful PEDs by focusing their attention on supplements that are commonly found in drug stores and nutritional supplement shops. This finding demonstrates how the quest to eradicate doping in sports using the surveillancebased system of regulations and banned substances seem to work against the underlying goals of anti-doping agencies in non-elite sports populations.NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptAcknowledgmentsThe author was supported by NIDA grant (T32 DA007233); points of view are the author’s alone.
NIH Public AccessAuthor ManuscriptJ Res Adolesc. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2015 June 01.Published in final edited form as: J Res Adolesc. 2014 June 1; 24(2): 235?51. doi:10.1111/jora.12124.NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptSerious Delinquency and Gang Participation: Combining and Specializing in Drug Selling, Theft and ViolenceRachel A. Gordon, University of Illinois at Chi.
