WE’VE grown used over the decades to hearing about deaths from drugs – the latest “legal highs” are now the subject of police crackdowns.

People have always taken such life-distorting drugs in various forms presumably since life began, and probably always will. It’s not that we shouldn’t do something about it, it’s just that it’s human nature and hard to change.

When it comes to drugs in sport, however, most people have quite a different view. We’re firmly against it and want it eradicating from high-level competition.

Now, leaked blood test data shows that, not only has drug-taking among sportsmen and women appear to have been going on for some time, but it affects hundreds of athletes at the biggest sporting events.

As many as 10 medals at the London 2012 Olympics are alleged to have been won by competitors who had recorded suspicious blood tests. And here, “suspicious” means they were never legally challenged on this.

The data belonged to the International Association of Athletics Federations, sport’s governing body, and covered 12,000 blood tests from 5,000 athletes from 2001 to 2012.

The tests reportedly show more than 800 of the athletes recorded blood tests that were “highly suggestive” of doping or “abnormal”. This means the athletes concerned had either taken illegal drugs or given themselves transfusions to boost their performance.

We all admire the complete dedication and grinding, daily hard work that top athletes need to undertake to be the best of the best. Their single-mindedness and discipline is something to which most of us could never aspire.

There is so much riding on their ultimate performance - not just reputation but the hard cash of endorsements and personal appearances - that drug-taking becomes fraud on a major scale.

To say that it’s disappointing to contemplate that high-level achievements came thanks to a chemical boost is putting it mildly. These are our heroes and heroines, great and positive role models for youngsters across the world.

Top athletes like Jessica Ennis Hill are calling on athletics authorities and the World Anti-Doping Agency to take action in the light of these latest revelations, and you would definitely hope they would do that.

Veteran Olympic rowing champion Sir Steve Redgrave says he hopes that drugs will not be “the focal point of the Rio Olympics” next Summer. But if the authorities don’t get their act together, and soon, it is sure to be.