Yes, drug use is illegal and bad and all persons caught using drugs should be punished to the full extent of the law. Yes, AFL is rife with drug use. It has been for years, no secret there.
What irks me the most, and we saw this ad nauseum with the Ben Cousins saga is the media blow up about the whole thing. Had the AFL and WCE been able to deal with Cousins without the media vultures circling around, I think things would have been different. Cousins has not returned to his best at all. I wonder if we are ruining another promising football career by having Stokes sprayed across the front cover of ever newspaper.
I have full faith that both the AFL and the respecive club could deal with the matter without the unwanted media attention.
If that is a lifetime ban then so be it. If its a slap on the wrist, then so be that.
To follow a different path, have you never taken an illegal drug? Wouldnt that be hypocritical to form such a strong opinion when you yourself have broken the same law.
I believe that a motto of, “Let the players play” should be adopted by all and sundry in regards to the AFL. Let the clubs, the AFL and the tribunal deal with the issues like this that arise.

On player behaviour:
”Every club in every sport in Australia will have someone who walks a fine edge. You’ve just got to keep helping them because you promised their parents. But surely by the time they’re 25 to 35 they should know which way to go. You don’t live their life; you just show them the right highway to go down.”

But we are getting a bit off track here …

the people from out of town happened to be some of his mates from the Northern Territory who were visiting……so, whom else would they ask.

btw – Annabelle’s answer is pretty true – - footballers would probably have a pretty fair idea of where to get drugs if they wanted.

One – most people would know how to get some cocaine if they needed it. Some people wouldn’t but they’d be in the minority. I’ve never touched the stuff, but if I wanted to, I’d know where to go.

Two – I agree that the story looks suss, but you only get sentenced on the crime you are charged with. It’s why Al Capone got done for tax evasion. Even if common sense says he was (allegedly) more involved than just buying some for his mates, that’s all they’ve got him on, and you can’t impose a sentence because, yeah he was probably a bit more into it than that.

And in my opinion, drink driving, assaults and sexual vilification of women are a far more damaging and urgent issue for the AFL and any sport than recreational drug use. Those 3 have the potential to cause damage to others, recreational drug use is more or less just damage to the user.

What I dont get is Stokes at 25, knowingly buying drugs (ableit a small quantity) for others. That is a conscious decision. No amount of education is going to help stupidity.

Redb

Is it any surprise when these over-indulged, pampered specimens believe they are above the law? Last year a league player asked the courts to allow his club to punish him – exactly how did he get so confused to think that the club could do the job of the courts? Because excuses are always being made for these “heroes”.

I have personally copped the “don’t you know who I am?” line. This was inside the apartment building I live in, when the hero in question was trying the break into an apartment (it turns out it was another players unit and was above board). I asked him what he was doing and who he was. The angry reply was “don’t you know who I am?” to which I said “actually no I don’t, should I?”. Which seemed to be upset about. (Turns out he was a second string NRL player, for a team that I really don’t follow so what were the chances?)

The perception privilege and power that some sports players have is as a direct result of the closed world in which they live. The clubs and associations try to educate them about the real world (at least they tell us they do). Maybe they should take greater steps like making the players who make these stupid decisions experience the real world. Make them work or volunteer in the real world – remove the pampering and privilege.

Correct MF, what i am saying is that if he really was a dealer he would have known to say it was for personal use (to lighten the sentence/punishment), the kid is really dumb, tried to look like the big man on campus and get his mates some good stuff.

Wrong place, wrong time…. big life lesson time….hope he bounces back, everyone makes mistakes.

glocko,
the rules for players is always different than the general public and stokes signed a contract which includes guidelines about taking drugs.

If he really was so innocent he would have told his mate “I dunno, ask someone else”.
And why would someone from out of town know to ask Stokes to get some drugs or who told him to go and see Stokes.

Its not alright for professional footballers to make adult decisions about taking drugs – it says in their contracts and code of conduct that if they are caught with illegal drugs they will be sacked.

Come on, lets all quit the pretences and really do something about cleaning up drugs in sport.

But Stokes (allegedly) “traffics” drugs, and it’s virtually certain he will receive this punishment.

Is everybody comfortable with this? I sure aren’t.

“Drug trafficking” sounds bad. “Buying some coke for my mate” sounds much better. But we concentrate on the trafficking. When I heard about the (alleged – in fact just add “alleged” at random intervals of this rant) trafficking, here I thought he had been found with massive amounts of drugs and that he supplied this to all and sundry.

But just holding on to some for his mates? Please …

Yes, yes, drugs are bad mmm..kay, but not as bad as terrorising females, assaulting people or drink driving.

Unfortunately it’s all about spin and precedent. Drugs in sports are a relatively new problem, whereas alcohol and sexual misdemeanours have been around since Don Bradman was found swimming in his own vomit with 3 hookers at the Cathedral Hotel (allegedly or just plain false – you decide).

As far as i can see it if he goes to court with what he has said about it here is or should be no way he could not be found guilty.

If he is guilty of trafficking, and I emphasise IF, the judicial system should remove him from society for a period long enough that any thought of playing again will be a pipe dream.

So any ban by the AFL would just be window dressing.