Pubdate: September 16, 1998 Source: Los Angeles Times (CA) Contact: http://www.latimes.com/ Author: STEPHEN WILSON, AP Sports Writer AUSSIES TOUGH ON DRUGS IN SPORTS South Korea--Australian Olympic officials are taking a hard-line approach to drugs in sports -tougher, in some ways, than the International Olympic Committee. A highly placed member of the IOC suggests it's tough enough to scare away athletes from international events in that country. But John Coates, president of the Australian Olympic Committee, refutes the suggestion by IOC executive board member Jacques Rogge that international sports organizations would refuse to stage events in Australia if athletes could face jail for doping offenses. "I don't think it's going to cost us," Coates said Tuesday. "A number of people could say the reverse: We are selecting a country that is doing everything possible to make it a clean event." The two Olympic representatives made their feelings known during an executive conference. Olympic officials are in Seoul to discuss preparations for a world anti-drug conference to be held at Lausanne, Switzerland, Feb. 2/4. The four-day conference, called in the wake of the drug scandals that marred the Tour de France, will finalize plans for the creation of a special Olympic agency to coordinate drug-testing throughout the world. On Tuesday, the Australian Olympic committee said that athletes using performance-enhancing drugs at the Sydney Olympics will face criminal fines and would be jailed only if they were caught trafficking. Before Tuesday's decision, Australian Olympic officials were at odds with the IOC, which had opposed any criminal action against drug cheats. The IOC insisted that only traffickers and dealers should be prosecuted, while athletes should be sanctioned by sports bodies alone. "At no time have I proposed that athletes who test positive for drugs should go to jail," Coates said. "The only time an athlete would ever find themselves in prison is if they had a commercial or traffickable amount of drugs." Coates denied that his proposals, announced last month in Australia, called for two-year jail terms for athletes caught using steroids. He said he was pushing for Australian laws to be changed so that penalties for "hard sports drugs" were as strict as those for narcotics. Possession or personal use of individual doses of performance-enhancing drugs could result in criminal action, but only in fines, not jail, Coates said. Rogge said Tuesday he was happy with Coates' clarification that jail would apply only to traffickers. IOC vice president Dick Pound of Canada said board members were eager to hear Coates' explanation. "The first impression conveyed to us suggested a rather scorched-earth policy which I'm sure he did not have in mind and I hope he didn't," Pound said. "I, for one, do not want to see sports competitions run by the police and I don't want to see athletes who were selected for doping control led away by police." At Sydney, any athlete testing positive for drugs would be subjected to existing IOC rules, including disqualification from the games. However, an Olympic athlete involved in supplying or selling drugs to others could face criminal prosecution. "If there are international athletes, coaches or other officials who are in possession of drugs in a commercial quantity or traffickable amount then they ought be subject to these stricter laws," Coates said. Coates also said he wants the Australian government to ban two popular performance-enhancing drugs -EPO and DHEA. EPO, an endurance-boosting hormone, was at the center of the scandal at this summer's Tour de France. DHEA is an anabolic steroid. Copyright 1998 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved - --- Checked-by: Rolf Ernst