Turkey's Youth and Sports Minister Akif Kilic reiterated his country's conviction that doping in sports should receive the same punishment as drug abuse.
At a World Anti-Doping Agency discussion forum he argued that both cause harm to a person's health and body, and could lead to loss of life - and that it was for this reason that doping should receive the utmost punishment.
The minister, earlier in September, had announced that the government was considering amending its sports laws on doping, treating it in equal manner as the criminal offence of drug abuse.
Meanwhile, Turkish National Olympic Committee President Ugur Erdener said at the discussion that doping in the country had gone down from 14.5 percent to 1.5 percent over the last two years.
The two-day event in Istanbul, attended by sports officials, experts and representatives of Interpol and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, is discussing means to halt the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports.
Source: KUNA