ACTION NEEDED TO OVERCOME DRUGS IN SPORTS

PARIS (AP) -- France's sports minister contends that a crowded sports
calendar and sponsor demands force overburdened cyclists to take drugs.

"Doping is not normal, is not inevitable," Marie-George Buffet said yesterday.

Speaking in the aftermath of the Tour de France drug scandal, she said
sports have become a victim of a "commercial system" that sets an
"outrageous calendar" of events.

"It is necessary to work on sporting statutes at the highest level" to
overcome the problem, she said.

Buffet, acknowledging that drugs touch professional, amateur and youth
sports, wants authorities to re-examine how sports scheduling and training
are handled.

She also has called for tougher legislation. In May, the Senate adopted a
bill introduced by her that would give judges the power to imprison drug
suppliers four to seven years.

The French government plans to increase spending on the fight against drugs
in sports from $2.6 million in 1998 to $4.2 in 1999.

Tour de France officials expelled the Festina team from the three-week race
on Friday after team director Bruno Roussel admilled supplying
performance-enhancing drugs to his cyclists.

Festina's riders withdrew from the race Saturday at the request of the Tour
de France after first trying to defy the ban and race in Saturday's time trial.

Jan Ullrich, last year's Tour de France champion, entered the debate
yesterday when he urged stricter testing for performance-enhancing drugs in
cycling.

"Demands for the legalization of doping substances is completely wrong. On
the contrary, controls have to be made tougher," Ullrich told the German
newspaper Bild.

"It's the only way to get out of the mess."

"I would have liked different circumstances for my first stage victory in
1998," said UlIrich, who won Saturday's time trial and held the leader's
yellow jersey for a day.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett