Johnson calls for tougher laws in drugs fight

By Gene Cherry

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) - Tougher laws and more government involvement are badly needed in the fight against doping in sport, former Olympic sprint champion Michael Johnson said on Tuesday.

"When people think 'I could go to jail for just using steroids,' then maybe that would help," Johnson told Reuters in a telephone interview from San Francisco.

The current system of banning athletes from the sport is not enough, the 200 and 400 meters world record-holder said.

"You can safely say in the last four, five, six years the cheaters have been ahead and they have won."

Johnson said his Sydney Olympic 4x400 meters relay team mate Antonio Pettigrew was a perfect example of how people can use performance-enhancing drugs and escape punishment unless called upon to tell the truth in court.

Pettigrew, who had never failed a doping test, admitted last month during the trial of former coach Trevor Graham that he had used performance-enhancing drugs during his career.

"The only reason he has actually admitted to it is because he would go to jail for perjury if he did not admit to it," Johnson said.

"But people don't think about that when they decide to cheat," the winner of five Olympic gold medals said.

"The idea that if I am caught I am going to be embarrassed, my family is going to be embarrassed and I may be banned from the sport for a couple of years or maybe four years and have my contract taken away and my livelihood taken away obviously isn't enough of a deterrent," he said.

Johnson made the comments after revealing in a British newspaper column that he was returning his Sydney relay gold medal because of Pettigrew.

"I don't want it," Johnson wrote. "I feel cheated, betrayed and let down."

PRAISING DECISION

His office has since been flooded with calls from people praising his decision.

"Once he (Pettigrew) admitted to it, immediately I started to think whether this medal was legitimate," Johnson said.

"It's not, and if it is not, it's pretty simple, we don't deserve to have it," he said.