Thoughts on criminal charges for drug cheats?
There's a couple problems with placing criminal charges on drug cheats. Like, what jurisdiction are they going to be trialled in, who's going to enact this legislation? Say Cadal gets caught doping in France, do we really think he'd get a fair trial over there? Plus, there's no guarantee that having criminal charges will work. Look locally, there's always a demand for our Government to raise the jail-time for Pedophille, Murder, Rape etc but people will still commit these offences.
It's a similar scenario that we face regarding drug laws now (that's recreational), it's a lost battle that law enforcement are fighting, people still take illegal drugs, import them etc because they all believe the risk is worth it or don't think they'll be caught.
Honestly, the Athlete's aren't the problem. It's more to with the management and team-leaders. Sure, throw the book at those athlete's caught cheating, but to say the likes of Riis and Bruyneel who were the managers/coaches of Team CSC and Postal etc get off scott free is wrong. If you create an atmosphere that is against cheating then you might make some headway.