Tightening the screws on both drug users and drug cheats, Bermuda Olympic Association recently adopted a resolution throwing their support behind Bermuda's new Drug Free Sports Policy and the Inernational Olympic Committee's medical code.

Adopted together, the resoltutions "give us more teeth,'' said BOA president Austin Woods.

The matter was mostly a formality in that it was unanimously supported by the same national sports groups who two weeks earlier had adopted the standard operating procedures and penalties drafted by the Bermuda Council for Drug Free Sports.

Still, it is significant because the IOC's code, superceding a 1988 version adopted by the BOA, deals with performance-enhancing drugs and Bermuda's stresses illicit drugs.

"What it means is that any sports competitor who undertakes to represent Bermuda must abide by what the IOC says and what the Bermuda Drug Free Sports Policy says,'' said Woods, himself one of the 14 members of the BCDS.

Bermuda's policy, which goes into effect on April 1, will allow for virtually every Island sports participant to be tested for marijuana, heroin and cocaine.

But national bodies are already obliged to test their athletes prior to embarking on overseas trips, said Ministry of Youth Development, Sport and Recreation director Anthony Roberts.

DRUGS DGS