THE IOC admitted in Lausanne yesterday that it would have to revise its punishments for drugs offenders and reconsider its position over the use of cannabis.

Although the IOC received a report from their athletes commission recommending that bans must be enforced, the Committee admitted that recent court challenges from guilty athletes based on their "freedom to work" will force some adaptations to the rules.

Francois Carrard, director general of the IOC, said: "Nowadays sportsmen are considered more and more to be professional and therefore we must accept their freedom to work."

Prince Alexandre de Merode, president of the IOC medical commission, said that testing positive for cannabis may be punished less severely in the future.