Canadian Dick Pound has confirmed he's leaving his job as head of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Pound told CBC News he will wrap up his work at the agency at the end of the year, after spending three terms as WADA president in Montreal.

The man who for nine years crusaded against doping in elite amateur sports said he's accomplished what he can, and it's time to move on.

The fight against doping in sports is nowhere near won, but Pound said he's pleased to have led WADA to where it is today. 

The World Anti-Doping Code in particular is one of his greatest accomplishments at WADA, he told CBC News on Tuesday.

"To have a single set of rules applying to all sports and all athletes, and to have an international convention approved by so many countries, is just remarkable."

Public awareness about drugs in sports has soared in the past decade under Pound's leadership at WADA, and he considers that new consciousness a highlight of his tenure.

"Doping in sports is like alcoholism. Unless people involved realize there is a problem, it's impossible to have a cure for it."

But there is still a pressing need to further investigate doping in amateur sports, he warned.

The international community needs to understand "how serious this problem is, and how important it is to get hold of it, and turn it around. Because if we don't, we're going to end up with humanoids practising increasingly violent and meaningless sports.

"Parents will start to say 'I don't want you to go into something where you have to become a chemical stockpile in order to become good at it."

Cycling in particular has suffered as scandals rocked recent Tour de France races. "Cycling has paid a terrible price," Pound said.

"When you get to the point that media refuse to cover your event, and sponsors are bailing out because they don't want to be associated to a bunch of people who are cheating, you've got a real problem in your sport. And they're having to wrestle with the consequences of letting it get out of control."

Professional sports will weather tough times ahead, he predicted.

"Professional leagues are on their back feet. People don't believe the sports heroes are necessarily clean anymore. Baseball, basketball, hockey: They're trying to convince the public there isn't a problem, and people don't believe that anymore."

WADA will pick a new president at its upcoming November conference in Madrid.