Pseudoephedrine on Prohibited List Effective Jan 1 2015

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has published the 2015 Prohibited List effective January 1, 2015.

The most significant change is Pseudoephedrine, a substance commonly used to treat nasal and sinus congestion, otherwise known as cold medicine. WADA has removed pseudoephedrine from the 2014 Monitoring Program and it is now on the Prohibited List.

For athletes, this means pseudoephedrine concentrations found in urine above 150 microgram per millilitre are prohibited in-competition in all sports.  Medications that contain pseudoephedrine such as the old formulation Sudafed must be ceased 24 hours prior to competition.

You can buy the new formulation of Sudafed over the counter, but the older version with pseudoephedrine hydrochloride is available behind the counter requiring your ID and a maximum of one box per day (this may vary by country).  The reason for this to prevent homemade crystal meth… i think the TV series Breaking Bad made this a well known fact.

Professional Hockey players are notorious for taking a cocktail of Starbucks coffee and Sudafed 2 hours before a game.  In fact, they were warned as far back as the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City that they would test positive if they weren’t careful.

Other WADA Updates

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) 2015 Anti-Doping Code has other significant changes:

• Addition of 2 new Anti-Doping Rule Violations – Complicity and Prohibited Association
• Longer mandatory sanctions for deliberate doping (increasing from 2 to 4 years)
• Increased time of storing samples for testing (statue of limitations increasing from 8 to 10 years)
• Whereabouts violations (reduced time of 3 violations over 12 months instead of 18 months period)
• Increased focus on intelligence and investigations
• An increase in investigation of support personnel in any cases of Anti-Doping Rule Violations.