For a substance to be included in Wada's list of banned substances, it must meet two of the following three criteria. Cocaine meets requirements number 2 and 3.

  • The substance is performance enhancing
  • The substance is harmful to health
  • The substance damages the reputation of the sport

    • If the doctor says Åke Andrén-Sandberg from the Swedish Sports Federation's doping commission:

    - I think it's really unfortunate that it is included in the list of doping substances. The athletes do not take it to get better, but they have usually taken it in conjunction with a party on Friday night which is not forbidden, but it is forbidden to have it in the body when competing.

    Alcohol not doping

    Until the end of the year 2017/18, alcohol was included on Wada's doping list for sports such as archery, car sports, aviation and racing boats but since then it has been completely removed. However, each individual sport may decide to ban alcohol in its own rules.

    According to Andrén-Sandberg, it is comparable to cocaine in this case.

    - This is a valuation issue that should be kept out of the doping problem itself. You did remove alcohol, but you can not drink a lot of alcohol and run out on the football field anyway. Then you remove it as a doping agent and add it to some general behavior or something. It would feel much better if it was the same as cocaine.

    "Cocaine is a party drug"

    At present, cocaine is listed as a so-called specified stimulant and thus the sentence must be at least twelve months suspended. Andrén-Sandberg also claims everything about cocaine could be performance enhancing or help with training.

    - Cocaine does not affect the fatigue center or anything like that. It is simply a party drug.

    It has been discussed several times whether cocaine should be removed from the list.

    - During the last ten-year period, at every major meeting there have been some who think that cocaine and cannabis should be removed from the list. Then those who want to keep it said that it would be a bad signal. It would be like we gave a permit. But if it had not been on the list now it would not have come up.

    But could alcohol be removed without a bad signal?

    - Alcohol has a different reputation. Cannabis and such are new. There are some who think you get better from it. It has a different reputation.