For years, the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) was viewed less as a partner in sport and more as an enforcer — an institution defined by controversy rather than care. A series of high-profile failures eroded public confidence; from flawed testing procedures exposed during hearings involving cricketer Andre Russell and quarter-miler Riker Hylton, to the Carifta Games 2022 débâcle in which Jamaica’s Under-20 women’s 4x100m relay team was denied ratification of a world record because one athlete was not tested due to JADCO’s negligence. Trust was at an all-time low.

All concerned, could agree deliberate and sustained change was needed.

In March 2018, June Spence Jarrett assumed the role of executive director, replacing Carey Brown following an internal review into the organisation’s operational shortcomings. Then, in March 2024 attorney-at-law Debby-Ann Brown Salmon took over as chairperson, replacing Alexander Williams. Together, the leadership set about repairing not just procedures, but perceptions.

Today, JADCO is intent on being seen as more than a regulatory body.

“JADCO not only tests and educates,” Spence Jarrett told the Sunday Observer. “We care for people and we want that to be registered. We cannot just think of the athletes alone. It’s a community effort, and all our business is for clean sport.”

While anti-doping testing remains a non-negotiable obligation under the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code, Spence Jarrett says that how the work is done matters just as much as compliance.

“We must care,” she said. “It’s not just testing and educating athletes. We must see the caring side of JADCO. We must care for the people we have under our supervision. We must test the athletes. It’s a requirement from WADA, our regulatory body. And we must adhere to the rules, and we must do it gently. We must have a human and personal approach to the athletes. Yes, we must test them, but how we do it is important.”

Central to that approach is the idea of shared responsibility and national pride.

“I will use one phrase – protecting Brand Jamaica,” Spence Jarrett said. “We must clean up our athletes. They represent not only themselves. They represent the Government of Jamaica, and the Government of Jamaica means JADCO. So we must ensure that they are clean.”

That message, she says, is now resonating. JADCO operates what Spence Jarrett describes as an “open-door policy”, encouraging athletes to engage proactively with the organisation rather than fear it.

“This week, I got about four e-mail from the athletes to say, ‘This is a supplement that was recommended. Can I take it?’ And I said, ‘I’m not the authority on it, but I’ll get my TUE (therapeutic use exemption) Committee to look at it.’ And I did it and responded to them and they were thankful,” Spence Jarrett said.

The result is a markedly different relationship.

“This is the sort of relationship we now share with our athletes. They don’t see us as, ‘You are there, and we are here.’ They see us as working together for one common goal – keeping Jamaica clean.”

That trust has even extended to the most intrusive aspect of anti-doping work.

Asked whether athletes are now more willing to open their doors to testers in the early hours of the morning, Spence Jarrett was clear.

“It’s exactly so,” she insisted. “We have no complaints. It is just a tremendous turnaround for us.”

Coaches, she says, are the next step, but communication remains key.

“There is a change in us, so there’s a change in the perception of us. And it comes back to communication and building relationships,” she said.

Beyond the track, JADCO has invested heavily in community outreach to demonstrate a nurturing side rarely associated with anti-doping agencies.

A health fair is scheduled for May 31, and partnerships with a dentist have seen free check-ups provided to junior athletes in schools. The organisation also stages an annual road show, three so far, distributing back-to-school items branded with JADCO’s logo.

“The message must be passed on that, ‘You don’t need dope to cope,’ ” Spence Jarrett said.

Perhaps most telling are the moments far removed from competition. JADCO adopted Siloah New Testament Church of God in Siloah, St Elizabeth, providing aid after Hurricane Melissa.

Spence Jarrett recalls the joy of that outreach vividly.

“All of us were there, cooking and sharing — I did the soup,” she said. “It was very good! We had jerk chicken, curry chicken, we had ham – members of staff donated the ham and we cooked. We brought ice cream and one child, when she had the ice cream, said: ‘Mi neva know seh mi woulda eat ice cream now because a long time mi nuh eat any.’ Because there was no [electricity] in the area. But we got dry ice and we packaged it.”

Even Brown Salmon, joined in, at one point playing hopscotch with children during a school visit.

For Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association First Vice-President Ian Forbes, the transformation is undeniable.

“Back then, the perception of JADCO was as the police,” he said during a panel discussion at JADCO’s Annual Symposium on Thursday. “And they were seen by some athletes, coaches, and even some officials as a ‘nuisance’, harassing the athletes, disturbing them at 6 o’clock in the morning, wherever they are, et cetera. That perception has totally changed.”

He says JADCO now embodies a broader vision of integrity in sport.

“Clean sport to us is not just compliance,” he said. “It’s education, culture, and leadership on our part.”

For an agency once defined by mistrust, JADCO’s challenge now is consistency. But through outreach, openness, and an insistence on humanity alongside regulation, the commission is quietly reshaping its identity one relationship at a time.

While this outreach could come across as a charm offensive, the bright eyes and proud demeanour of Spence Jarrett while recalling these experiences suggests there is genuine care and concern for each person benefiting from these projects. JADCO’s hope is now that the public takes notice.

Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission Executive Director June Spence Jarrett (right) demonstrates how to use donated Samsung tablet devices to Eltham Park Primary School Principal Conroy Griffiths (left) and student athletes Michael-Anthony Ramsay and Khaiera Knight.

A mural at Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission headquarters at Ballater Multiplex in St Andrew. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association First Vice-President Ian Forbes (Photo: Garfield Robinson)