Sir, Professor Ian Blackshaw, unsurprisingly, takes an academic viewpoint when he says that the lifetime ban on Dwain Chambers is a travesty of justice (letter, July 22). He fails to understand that rehabilitation of a drugs cheat is different from rehabilitation of, say, a convicted thief. The convicted thief may be taught never to steal again as the drugs cheat may be taught never to take drugs again, but there is empirical evidence that the drugs cheat continues to benefit from his previous drug taking long after he has stopped and so he continues to “cheat” in every race he runs.

Sandy Pratt
Lingfield, Surrey

Sir, Calling Dwain Chambers and his ilk “drug cheats” is mislabelling them. If the issue was one of cheating then this could be easily rectified by legalising the use of these drugs within sport. The issue is one of health — if young people believe that in order to compete at a sport they have to put their future health at risk by the use of drugs.

Perhaps “drug abusers” would be a more pertinent name.

David Osmond
Grimsby

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