Drug use and footy players: What’s the real problem?

[jeemak]

Re: Drug use and footy players: What’s the real problem?

Maybe, but I'm responding to the notion that education is the answer. I think it's just part of the answer.
If the numbers of players taking illicit drugs being suggested in the media is close to the mark then education alone won't work unless it's supported by something stronger than a 2 week penalty.

What evidence do you have that suggests a bigger punishment based disincentive would work?

EDIT - sorry, just saw your example around drink driving. I think it's completely different and a conflation separate two separate issues.

[Bornadog]

Re: Drug use and footy players: What’s the real problem?

A good example of penalties not working is the Philippines. President Duterte vowed to clean up the Country

From an article on abc news

From the moment he was sworn into power in 2016, Mr Duterte declared that Filipinos had one common enemy: the drug trade. Claiming that there were 3 million addicts in need of "slaughter", he said he would offer bounties to police for killing suspected users and dealers.
A bloodbath ensued.
Estimates vary, but the Philippines government says more than 6,000 people have been killed in police anti-drug operations over the past six years, and there have been more than 300,000 arrests.

Even the threat of death, has not stopped people taking drugs, he never got to the root of the issues facing his people.

Of course AFL players are educated about the perils of drug taking, but like a large percentage of young people in our society, who love to party, they will still partake. They don't see anything wrong with taking drugs, even if it is illegal.

I don't know the solution.

[hujsh]

Re: Drug use and footy players: What’s the real problem?

A good example of penalties not working is the Philippines. President Duterte vowed to clean up the Country

From an article on abc news



Even the threat of death, has not stopped people taking drugs, he never got to the root of the issues facing his people.

Of course AFL players are educated about the perils of drug taking, but like a large percentage of young people in our society, who love to party, they will still partake. They don't see anything wrong with taking drugs, even if it is illegal.

I don't know the solution.

Lots of dealers and users killed by that man, not to mention all the innocent bystanders.

But at least the country is in good hands with his successor... the son of the former dictator who fled the country with the world record for most money ever stolen from a state.

[FrediKanoute]

Re: Drug use and footy players: What’s the real problem?

A good example of penalties not working is the Philippines. President Duterte vowed to clean up the Country

From an article on abc news



Even the threat of death, has not stopped people taking drugs, he never got to the root of the issues facing his people.

Of course AFL players are educated about the perils of drug taking, but like a large percentage of young people in our society, who love to party, they will still partake. They don't see anything wrong with taking drugs, even if it is illegal.

I don't know the solution.

Legalisation? Surely that is the first step towards solving the drugs problem. If you take the position that drug addiction is a health problem and not a criminal justice issue then you go some way towards dealing with the issue. Sure criminalise the trafficking (just as you would criminalise the illegal sale of alcohal).

[EasternWest]

Re: Drug use and footy players: What’s the real problem?

Legalisation? Surely that is the first step towards solving the drugs problem. If you take the position that drug addiction is a health problem and not a criminal justice issue then you go some way towards dealing with the issue. Sure criminalise the trafficking (just as you would criminalise the illegal sale of alcohal).

Nah, couldn't be that simple could it? (This question is dripping with sarcasm.)

[jeemak]

Re: Drug use and footy players: What’s the real problem?

Legalisation? Surely that is the first step towards solving the drugs problem. If you take the position that drug addiction is a health problem and not a criminal justice issue then you go some way towards dealing with the issue. Sure criminalise the trafficking (just as you would criminalise the illegal sale of alcohal).

What about just plain old drug use? We need to get our heads around the fact it can be fun, and nothing more than that.

[GVGjr]

Re: Drug use and footy players: What’s the real problem?

Of course AFL players are educated about the perils of drug taking, but like a large percentage of young people in our society, who love to party, they will still partake. They don't see anything wrong with taking drugs, even if it is illegal.

I don't know the solution.

That's one of the reasons why education alone isn't going to be the answer.
If players are ignoring the education they receive is a 2 week penalty really going to be enough of a deterrent?
There must be some other options.

[GVGjr]

Re: Drug use and footy players: What’s the real problem?

Legalisation? Surely that is the first step towards solving the drugs problem. If you take the position that drug addiction is a health problem and not a criminal justice issue then you go some way towards dealing with the issue. Sure criminalise the trafficking (just as you would criminalise the illegal sale of alcohal).

To me that's a little like lowering the age requirements of drinking alcohol to address challenges of underage drinking.
Isn't the aim to be trying to address or stop the options of players getting to and addictive state?

[Grantysghost]

Re: Drug use and footy players: What’s the real problem?

Norway tried to do it however the bill wasn't passed.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-norway-politics-drugs-idUSKBN2AJ1FM

Looks like the Netherlands, Portugal and Germany focus on treatment for addicts rather than criminalisation.

As said above treat the addiction as an illness and hit the dealers.

Edit : Canada trialling it in British Columbia.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/31/canada-decriminalize-drugs-british-columbia-overdoses

[Bornadog]

Re: Drug use and footy players: What’s the real problem?

That's one of the reasons why education alone isn't going to be the answer.
If players are ignoring the education they receive is a 2 week penalty really going to be enough of a deterrent?
There must be some other options.

You do realise the 2 weeks was not for the drug use directly. It was for bringing the AFL into disrepute.

The penalties for drug use are different in season - ie the three strikes rule

[jeemak]

Re: Drug use and footy players: What’s the real problem?

To me that's a little like lowering the age requirements of drinking alcohol to address challenges of underage drinking.
Isn't the aim to be trying to address or stop the options of players getting to and addictive state?

And keeping them in the system and not over-penalising them is stopping them from getting into an addictive state. Exclusion is more likely to make them turn to drugs and actually become addicts. That's the entire point of it.

The fifty year war on drugs, and criminalising drug use has only led to privatisation of a prison system that makes money from people who should be in health facilities instead of being in high cost prison facilities where a higher chance of recidivism exists.

Why would the dynamics be any different when it comes to professional sport? The system creates the pressure, people release via drugs to counter that pressure, even without being addicted to drugs, and the system then spits them out and leaves them with what?

It fails the logic test on every level.

[hujsh]

Re: Drug use and footy players: What’s the real problem?

To me that's a little like lowering the age requirements of drinking alcohol to address challenges of underage drinking.
Isn't the aim to be trying to address or stop the options of players getting to and addictive state?

Personally I think the AFL shouldn't bother looking for drug use any more than your or my employer does for us (basically as long as they aren't high in the workplace).

It's pretty clear the only real issue anyone has is players being seen with drugs, not the actual use. I think that's reflected in the way the AFL has handled things this past decade or so.

[Twodogs]

Re: Drug use and footy players: What’s the real problem?

To me that's a little like lowering the age requirements of drinking alcohol to address challenges of underage drinking.
Isn't the aim to be trying to address or stop the options of players getting to and addictive state?

No. The AFL drug policy is a public relations exercise and it always has been.

[FrediKanoute]

Re: Drug use and footy players: What’s the real problem?

To me that's a little like lowering the age requirements of drinking alcohol to address challenges of underage drinking.
Isn't the aim to be trying to address or stop the options of players getting to and addictive state?

Maybe, but making it a criminal justice issue just sends people to jail for what is often something they really can't do anything about. I'm not pro-drugs, but equally criminalising them just drives behaviour underground and that is when things go bad. For starters getting drugs means dealing with people who are not very nice; you have issues of purity and what the product has been cut with; and it leaves celebrities open to what we have just witnessed with Bailey Smith.

Not all people who do drugs get addicted. Not all people who do drugs are unable to function. For some people illegal drugs (be it weed, coke, E's) allow them to function and cope.....how is that different to anti-depressants? I completely agree though that people getting hooked on drugs is bad, but if you think about the most addictive drugs tend to be opiates. Aren't we better managing how people take these drugs than letting them randomly experiment?

[FrediKanoute]

Re: Drug use and footy players: What’s the real problem?

Norway tried to do it however the bill wasn't passed.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-norway-politics-drugs-idUSKBN2AJ1FM

Looks like the Netherlands, Portugal and Germany focus on treatment for addicts rather than criminalisation.

As said above treat the addiction as an illness and hit the dealers.

Edit : Canada trialling it in British Columbia.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...mbia-overdoses

The bill wasn't passed becasue we ahve been brought up on a diet of "Drugs are bad....ok!" so conservative people who have never tried or experimented will believe that every drug addict just wants to burgle their house or rob them or worse. The reality is that those behaviours people fear are as a result of the criminalisation of drugs. Drugs which have been legalised.....tobacco, alcohal, caffiene have different issues - but we accept them because we do not associate them with criminal activities.

We woudl have been far better to say to Bailey, "mate, I get doing coke gives you a great feeling, but what are the longer term effects of it? Do you want your football legacy to be that of a coked out almost player?".