SPORTS MUST FRONT UP OVER DRUG ABUSE

If the revelation about rugby league legend Andrew Johns' brush with
the law in England after being found in possession of a tablet of
ecstasy caused ructions within the league world, then they are nothing
compared to what has followed, writes The Marlborough Express in an
editorial.

It turns out that Johns has had a decade-long battle with drugs,
alcohol and mental illness and, even worse, many people who knew about
it stood by fearful of the impact any action might have on Johns'
career and the fate of the many Australian teams he has been involved
with.

The story raises a number of serious concerns about drug use in sport,
not just in league, and in the attitudes of many in the sports
administration to the problems of drug use, both performance enhancing
and recreational drugs.

The first concern is that many of those who could be expected to have
the player's welfare at heart stood by knowing Johns was endangering
his own health and livelihood with his behaviour.

Testimony to this is the reaction of Johns' brother Matthew when he
received the phone call about the arrest. He expressed relief that
nothing worse had happened to his brother. One of Johns' former
coaches, Phil Gould, said one of his first reactions was that he was
grateful the arrest hadn't happened in Bali.

Even the Newcastle team doctor who knew many of the details seems
unable or unwilling to take the action needed to stop the problems.

The second concern is about the effectiveness of the NRL drug testing
regime. How could a high-profile player, often involved in
representative games and therefore likely to have more opportunity to
be tested, have an apparently widely known drug problem and never test
positive? No matter which way you look at it, the claims by the NRL
that it has clamped down on drug use ring hollow.

And the most troubling concern is about the attitude of rugby league
administrators at all levels of the game to Johns' behaviour.

It transpires that as far back as 2000 there were concerns about
recreational drug use with the Kangaroos squad in England, leading to
Brisbane payer Gordon Tallis complaining to coach Chris Anderson about
the behaviour of a number of leading players, including Johns.

Rugby league officials were so concerned about players in the national
team using illicit substances they employed a former Yorkshire
policeman to warn off drug dealers on subsequent tours of England.
Still no action was taken against the problems.

And herein lies the heart of the matter.

All sports are reluctant to take any action that might diminish the
appeal of their star players and that might lessen their appeal to
sponsors. This reluctance covers alcohol abuse, performance enhancing
drugs as well as recreational drugs such as ecstasy.

Hasty moves to close the stable door after the horse has bolted only
reinforce this perception rather than dispel it.