Sports minister Richard Caborn has come under fire for suggesting that sports people should not receive bans for using “social” drugs.

The World Anti-Doping Authority’s (Wada) chair, Dick Pound, as well as members of the opposition in the House of Commons, have criticised the minister for claiming that the key issue regarding anti-doping was whether or not the drugs enhanced performance.

Caborn told MPs on the Science and Technology Committee yesterday (12 December) that the police should deal with athletes using recreational drugs such as cocaine and cannabis, not Wada.

“We are not in the business of policing society,” he said. “We are in the business of rooting out cheats in sport.”

He said that Wada’s code was based on three principles – performance enhancement, harm to the athlete and harm to the sport – and that he believed greater leverage should be given to the performance enhancing aspect.

However, Wada maintains that all drugs on its banned list could have an effect on athletes. The Guardian quoted Pound as saying: “There is a body of thought that there would be an advantage in taking cannabis. Who’s to say that in a sport like gymnastics, where there is a fear element, you are not giving yourself an advantage by taking cannabis being more relaxed?”

The shadow sports minister, Hugh Robertson, also said: “Richard Caborn’s comments are damaging and wrong. Top sportsmen and women are role models for many young people.”

Meanwhile, Caborn said that the UK would not bring in a law before the 2012 London Olympics that would prosecute athletes who failed drug tests – as called for by Arne Ljungqvist, Swedish head of the International Olympic Committee’s medical commission – saying that sport should “deal with its own misdemeanours”.