QUEBEC JUNIOR LEAGUE WILL RESTART DRUG TESTS

But only 50 to 75 players will be tested following allegations of widespread
abuse

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League will start random drug testing in 2004
following allegations that up to 60 per cent of players are using
over-the-counter medication and marijuana to improve their games.

If caught, a player would face a three-to-five-game suspension. A second
offence would also lead to some kind of discipline, but not an outright ban
from the game, league commissioner Gilles Courteau said yesterday.

But only 50 to 75 tests will be done each season, he said.

Courteau, responding to a damning report in yesterday's La Presse which said
the sport was rife with drug use, said he was conscious of the problem.

"But I can't say what percentage of players are taking drugs," he said. "The
media are blowing it out of proportion."

In La Presse's story, one coach, speaking not for attribution, and player
agent Enrico Ciccone estimated that a slight majority of the 380 players
were on some kind of drug routine.

One of the most popluar is the stimulant pseudoephedrine, which is found in
dozens of cold remedies, including Sudafed.

Players allegedly also take tranquillizers to calm them down from the
ephedrine buzz , amphetimines to pick them up from tranquillizers, and
caffeine to offset the tranquillizers. They're also using marijuana, as well
as sleeping pills, to relax and catch up on lost sleep.

The Quebec league, along with the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport,
started testing players for drugs in 1996, as part of a pilot project. But
Paul Melia, the CEO of CCES, said it was stopped in 2000 because there were
no effective sanctions.

Melia said he was surprised by the numbers of players La Presse reported as
using drugs, although much of it is anecdotal.

"It shines a bit of a light on junior hockey," he said, adding that there is
a need for effective testing and education, as well as sanctions to
discourage drug use.

"There are a lot of pressures (on players). We need to think about these
young athletes and their health and safety."

Courteau said that on a recent tour he did of the 16 teams in the league,
people involved with players discussed drug use.

"But we didn't expect it to be as widespread as (the newspaper) said."

In Quebec City yesterday, Sports and Leisure Minister Jean-Marc Fournier
said the government has already set the wheels in motion to get to the
bottom of the allegations.

"It's troubling and worrying," he said. "We have young people, who, in hopes
of making a career or a future in hockey, are putting their health in
danger."

But Fournier said it is too early to jump to conclusions about how
widespread the problem might be and whether coaches and management might
have turned a blind eye.