Drugs means medicine, not just illegal substances!
       
The Club is affiliated to Swim England. This means that the National policy on drugs applies to all members.  Drugs means anything prescribed by a doctor or anything purchased. If you take cough medicine that is a drug, just the same as a prescribed hay fever cure or an inhaler for asthma.
       
There is a list of approved drugs. You with your parents are responsible for ensuring that only medicines on the approved list are used. Your doctor will have a copy of the list, and will refer to it if you tell him/her that you are a competing athlete.
         
The list is available on the Swim England web site www.britishswimming.org  
       
Please remember that medicine bought abroad may not be the same as the same name and brand bought in this country, as Alan Baxter found to his cost as he was disqualified from his best ever ski race result over a foreign nasal spray.
               
If you take medicine, you must declare it, using the Swim England declaration form. You can get a form from the Club or the Swim England web site.
             
If you are selected for a drug test at a competition, which is unlikely, the process will be explained to you. Saying no is not an option, once selected co-operation is compulsory. It is not unfriendly and one person, who will answer questions, will escort you closely throughout the process. Remember selection for test is NOT an accusation, because test candidates are selected at random or because of their finishing place. Expect a nil result.