Thirteen years ago the Bermuda Council on Drug Free Sport (BCDS) came into being in the wake of the 'Miami Seven' scandal when seven members of Bermuda's Under-23 soccer team were arrested at Miami Airport for possession of drugs on the way home from Jamaica. The seven eventually pleaded no contest and were allowed home.

Jon Beard, chairman of BCDS said this week: "We have come a long way from when we first started. Back then we had a part-time person working with Benedict Associates.

"Now we have our own offices (on Point Finger Road) and there are three full-time people and next year I imagine that two more will be hired full time."

The tests conducted in Bermuda for the majority of athletes are looking to identify whether an athlete has been taking recreational drugs like marijuana and cocaine.

But for the elite athletes, the tests are also to see whether they have been taking performance enhancing drugs. Those tests are sent abroad to a lab in Canada.

Asked whether the drug testing over the past 13 years had done anything to stop people taking recreational drugs, Beard said: "I don't really know the answer to that. All we can say is that we are making every effort to test athletes. That is all we can do. And I feel that if we are not going to do it properly why bother. You are either going to do it properly or not. It is that simple."

Cathy Belvedere, executive director of the BCDS, said they were looking to train people to become doping control officers – the people who actually conduct the tests.

"None of our other staff are involved with testing anymore. That is for transparency sake so you do not end up with a situation where a staff person will be educating you one week and the next week they are doing the doping control."

So the BCDS has just started advertising for people to train as doping officers.

"In January we will be doing another training course," said Belvedere. "And delightfully we have been inundated with calls. We have had 30 people who have said they want to train to do the doping control."

To become a doping control officer a person will have to go through a "minimum of 18 hours of training sessions and workshops".

Belvedere said: "You will also have to do a field exam where you are observed conducting the testing and you have to sit an exam. We have an 85 percent pass mark and we are looking to get as many doping control officers as we can can."