With The ACC are circling the Cronulla Sharks, and Essendon having already semi-sorta-pre-admitted they may have a problem, surely we can now accept, at elite level football, there is a problem with the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs).
However, with so much focus on our top leagues, have we forgotten to shine the torch into the dark corners of non-elite sport?
On page 18 of the report Organised Crime and Drugs in Sport, the ACC clearly states that within “sub-elite athletes”, PED use is widespread, due to the massive improvement that can be gained and the competitive nature of making elite sport.
They even have a case study of players from a rugby club importing GHRP-6 from Canada. This is extremely worrying for many reasons.
First and foremost is player health. Many PEDs, including hormone releasing GHRP-6 and Hexarelin, are not yet deemed fit for humans. Yet these athletes are, according to the ACC report, getting hold of these drugs through various means, and using them.
The club environments these players come from is obviously less financially well-off than their elite counterparts, so there are not the same doctors, nutritionists and sport scientists around the players. So who is monitoring them?
The report states there are a variety of ways in which PED’s can be purchased, including many online stores and compounding chemists – who can customise formulations into different sizes and states – as well as selling discontinued drugs, with most of their raw resources coming from Chinese wholesalers.
It doesn’t exactly fill one with consumer confidence.
Two drugs mentioned in the report as being administered, without being approved for human use, are created from animals- Cerebrolysin (from a pig’s brain) and Actovegin (an extract from calf’s blood).
How long before a local farmer decides to try and brew some for their own use?
The means and motivation to gain these drugs for below-par athletes is definitely there. Footballers, even in lower levels, can easily earn more than $1000 a game throughout the season on top of their working wage.
So constantly performing at high levels could potentially double or triple a player’s income. It also means the disposable income is there to spend on improving one’s performance or recovery.
Recovery is an important aspect to consider as well, as a majority of lower level sportspeople still need to work, and lack the medical facilities available to higher level athletes.
If you’re a casual labourer during the week, you can’t afford to take a sick day because you are sore from the weekend.
Getting hold of some CJC-1295 (again, not approved for human use) is apparently good for recovery, as well as hormone release, and may help you keep both incomes going as long as possible.
Another concern is, as at elite level, protecting the integrity of the contest, club, and sport, from grassroots up.
If local sportspeople are found out, or even rumoured to be cheating, organisations affected will have a lot less ability to go into damage control.
Parents will be even more hesitant to put their children into a club where the taint of drugs is so much closer to home. Even worse, if it is not exposed, players will be bought up within a pro-PED culture, and drugs will gain a stronger foothold in sport.
All through this process, criminal entities are involved in the supply chain, be it manufacturing, selling, or shipping.
Pity the unfortunate player who could end up with a criminal leaning on them, to buy more, or get more people on board, or pay more.
If (or when) betting markets eventually open on lower league sport, criminal organisations will already have the links to fix results.
Professional, semi-pro and amateur athletes all play to win, albeit to different degrees and for different reasons. At the moment, PED’s are already easily accessible, and these athletes are not exactly going through rigours of being regularly drug tested.
Something will need to change before someone suffers seriously.
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