Booster Drugs For Athletes

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30395, 20 March 1964, Page 11

Booster Drugs For Athletes

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

VATICAN CITY, March 18.

A Vatican theologian, Monsignor Pietro Palazzini, who today condemned pep pills for sportsmen, said doping could in certain cases even violate the commandment “Thou shalt not kill.”

Replying to a reader in the Vatican City weekly “Osservatore Della Domenica," Mgr. Palazrini, secretary of the Vatican's Congregation of the Council, said: "The use of drugs and artificial stimulants of any kind is to be condemned in any case, even if only from a sports point of view. "Apart from being unsportsmanlike and often only momentary, the improved performance in a match is nearly always paid for dearly.” Recent allegations of doping of Italian soccer players have caused an uproar in sporting circles, provoked a judicial investigation and prompted questions in Parliament. The prelate said those who give pep drugs to sportsmen “fail in fairness by disregarding sports rules in a competition. This is deceit and fraud.”

He said that before using such substances, those raspon-

sible ought to consult a doc* tor.

It was difficult to imagine that a conscientious doctor “will not point out to them the ruinous effects on the nervous system and physique of sportsmen.”

Fighting In Kashmir JAMMU (Kashmir), March 19. More than a dozen Pakistani raiders were killed yesterday in a clash with villagers in the Pargwal area of Kashmir. After an exchange of fire the villagers drove the Pakistanis back over the border. Pargwal is 36 miles from Bhulwal Mulo, where Pakistani raiders killed four Indians in a midnight raid on Sunday night