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The AFL’s illicit drugs testing results have been published for the year 2009. And, again, the debate rages. There are those who advocate zero tolerance, there are those who advocate two strikes, and there are those who advocate naming and shaming.
Dealing only with the facts, the AFL testing for 2009 conducted 348 extra drug tests for two extra positive tests. The rate of positive testing has dropped from 0.98% to 0.89%. There are still yet to be any third strikes recorded.
The following points need to be remembered whenever discussing this issue:
1. The AFL is WADA compliant, and so the AFL enforces a zero tolerance on ‘drug cheats’ – i.e. players are tested for performance enhancing drugs ‘in competition’.
2. The AFL illicit drugs program is a voluntary program entered into by the AFLPA, so, even if the AFL were to buckle to some elements of public opinion and try to name and shame and be more punitive, the AFLPA would simply withdraw their support.
3. The AFL does report the findings. About the only comparable program is the NRL two strikes program. However, the NRL does not report the findings.
4. Ben Cousins’ three weekly tests are not counted in the 1568 tests.
5. It’s recognised that the legal drug – alcohol – is actually the bigger issue, and that in most cases, the illicit drug use is subsequent to firstly overuse of alcohol.
6. Federal Government statistics for 2009 claim that 31% of Australians aged between 18-29 used illicit drugs sometime during the year, therefore, a 0.89% strike rate in the AFL is massively lower than the general public for this age group.
7. Extension of point six, 20% used cannibinoids compared to one positive strike in the AFL testing, whilst 5% used cocaine compared to an AFL strike rate of below 1%. So, it is important to recognise that the AFL environment is seemingly significantly better than the general social setting.
No doubt debate will continue to rage. And having heard absolute ignorance from one Steve Price on MTR dismissing Australian Drug Foundation head John Rogerson and remarking “What’s the ADF?”, and suggesting they were a promotion agency for drugs…not helpful Mr.Price.
*Note – the testing period runs March to February.
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