Drugs in the AFL

[Fry-d-]

AFL players are smart enough to know not to use drugs, it could impact on their career.

 

[kingpin007]

NEWS : 5.4.09 - Peter 'Spida' Everitt lifts the lid on drugs in AFL

Peter 'Spida' Everitt lifts the lid on drugs in AFL

By Tony Sheahan | April 05, 2009 12:00am

PETER 'Spida' Everitt claims there is a serious drug problem in the AFL, revealing he has twice been offered cocaine by people in the game.

Everitt says he was first offered the drug by a fellow player in a taxi, then again by a retired player in a nightclub.

On the issue of drugs in football, the 34-year-old former St Kilda, Hawthorn and Sydney Swans star said yesterday: "There's been, definitely, through my career, quite a few instances where you see it first hand. I've been offered it in a taxi by the player of a club.''

On his second brush with drugs, Everitt said: "I'd only been in a new club for a couple of hours and I just went out after I'd moved and got offered it by a former player. I explained I wasn't interested.''

Everitt said the former player tried to convince him to give it a try, but he refused. Everitt, who said he had never taken an illegal drug, also revealed he once loaned money to a team-mate who wanted to buy a substance.

"If he wanted to impact his profession, it was his choice,'' Everitt said. He refused to reveal the names of players he knew or believed used illicit substances but said people, including AFL officials, were naive to think it wasn't a major problem.

The All-Australian ruckman said there was not enough testing outside the home-and-away season. Everitt also called for the AFL to name players on the first occasion they were caught with drugs in their system.

Under the current rules, players are referred for counselling, treatment and education after their first positive drug test, but their identities are protected until they have failed three tests. "I reckon if you've got one strike against your name you should be named and shamed,'' Everitt said.

But AFL spokesman Brian Walsh said there was plenty of testing and the three-strikes policy was working. He said hair testing was being brought in during the holiday season on a trial basis and testing had increased to 1500 per year.

"Illicit drug use is a community-wide issue and one that impacts on all walks of life,'' he said. "The AFL brought in the Illicit Drug policy in 2005 after statistical testing showed that there were a small percentage of AFL players failing tests, indicating illicit drug use.

"Rather than take up a simplistic `name and shame' approach, the AFL consulted with experts in the area of drug prevention on the best method of changing behaviour of players who failed a test.''

In a wide-ranging interview, Everitt also told how he feared for his life after receiving death threats in 2006. Everitt revealed a man, later identified as having psychiatric problems, threatened to kill him at Cararra during the round seven clash between Hawthorn and Brisbane in 2006.

"I was constantly looking for a red dot to come on me,'' Everitt said. "I was getting phone calls in the lead-up to the game, which included death threats.''

Everitt, who hosts a travel show on Foxtel, alerted club officials, but not police. "I thought I might get popped (shot at) walking along the boundary line,'' he said. "I was thinking about it the whole game. I was pretty happy when I got to the end of the game and I was on the team bus back to the hotel.''

He said the threats ceased when he was traded to the Swans at the end of 2006.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,25290124-5016140,00.html

 

[hyroller]

yep, footy players love their charlie alright. no big surprises there.
and i doubt the AFL is oblivious to the rife drug problem that it has... not after all that has transpired in the past 2 years.

 

[Genetikal]

did you know macdonalds is naming a new meal after ben cousins?

no burger, no fries, just coke and ice.haha

 

[filenet]

quote "Everitt, who said he had never taken an illegal drug"

whooooa whoooooa haaaa bwaaaaa HAAAAAA HAAAAAAR HAAAAR!

ah spidy man...........you're too much!


quote "I was constantly looking for a red dot to come on me,''

eeeeeeeeee! heeeee heeeeee! oh oh oh bwaa aaaa HAAAA HAAAA HEEE HEEE HAAAAAA!

oh geese I just wet myself!


i'm surprised that this paranoid spidy android has managed to keep his septum alive...

oh please spidy man.....more! MORE!

 

[hoptis]

AFL off-season drug-testing attacked
Article from: Herald Sun
Cheryl Critchley
June 22, 2009 12:00am

OFF-SEASON illicit drug testing is designed to protect the AFL "brand" at the expense of player privacy, academics claim.

But the AFL and drug experts have defended the policy, which is backed by the AFL Players' Association.

In a paper for an international sport studies conference, the academics say the AFL's Illicit Drugs Policy is convoluted and contradictory. They also criticise the NRL policy.

Victoria University Associate Professor Bob Stewart said the AFL's illicit drug regime was too punitive and an unnecessary breach of player privacy.

He said by trying to take the moral high ground and testing off-season, it was more punitive than the World Anti-Doping Agency and International Olympic Committee.

"When you read between the lines, it's to protect the (AFL) brand," he said.

Prof Stewart wrote the paper with fellow sports academics Daryl Adair from Sydney's University of Technology, Jason Mazanov from the University of New South Wales, and RMIT University's Aaron Smith.

Prof Stewart said Richmond's Ben Cousins, who admitted having a drug problem while at West Coast, was unfairly demonised despite never testing positive.

He said while the AFL's three-strikes policy sounded good on the surface and had player welfare and wellbeing at the forefront, it impinged on their private time and could lead to a 12-week suspension.

"When they're socialising out of season, what they do is their business," Prof. Stewart said. "If they're breaking the law they're breaking the law.

"(This policy is) focusing on a non-performance enhancing drugs out-of-season, when no one really cares - or should care - about what pro-sports people are doing in their spare, and presumably, private time."

AFL spokesman Patrick Keane said it was one of only three sports in Australia with an illicit drug code, and the only Australian sport to publicly release test results.

He said the policy was introduced after wide consultation with experts and had full player support.

"The aim is to educate players on the dangers of making wrong decisions with the use of illicit drugs," he said.

Australian Drug Foundation CEO John Rogerson said the code worked well and helped rehabilitate players without the need to name and shame.

He said "plenty" of workplaces drug tested employees.

Herald Sun