Fourteen players fail drug tests
Jon Ralph | August 28, 2008 04:24pm
THE AFL has revealed that 14 players failed drug tests and three others got a second strike in its last testing period.
These results came after the AFL dramatically increased its testing regime, conducting 1152 tests in the 12 months to February 2008., doubling the number of tests conducted in previous years.
The AFL said the positive tests were actually a 35 per cent drop as a percentage of players tested on the figures from the previous year and a 70 per cent on the first year of testing in 2005.
The majority of failed tests in 2007 occurred during a blitz of testing as players returned to their clubs post-season.
The league also announced it would continue to step up its drug-testing procedures, conducting 1500 trials in the current period, testing players' hair samples on their return from holiday and target testing players during the offseason.
However, the league would not be changing its three-strikes policy down to two despite pressure from outside the sport.
Hair testing allows players to be tested when they return from holidays and provides a record of any drug use for up to three months prior to the sample being taken.
Other changes to the AFL out of competition illicit drug policy include:* Sanctions now apply on the first and second time a player fails an out of competition illicit drug test. A fine of $5000 applies to the first failed test and a six-week suspension applies on the second. Both sanctions are suspended and are activated on the third failed test, bringing suspension up to a maximum of 18 weeks.
* Every AFL player will be tested out of competition for illicit drugs at least once a year.
* Greater target testing of players returning to the club out of season will take place from the end of 2008.
* The suspension for a failed third test for marijuana has been increased to a maximum of 12 weeks in line with the other illicit drugs, on the advice of experts of marijuana’s increasingly harmful effect on mental health.
* The illicit drugs to be tested for will be expanded to now include Ketamine and GHB, currently not tested by any sport or under the WADA code;
* When a player who has failed a test is traded to, or drafted by, another club, the new club’s Chief Medical Officer is informed of the failed test(s).
* Where multiple failed tests have occurred at a club, the club’s CEO is formally informed of the failed tests but the identity of the player(s) involved remains confidential.
* A players’ failed test will now lapse after a period of four years.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,24255713-19742,00.html
