My few initial thoughts:
Minor thought first - Why is his ban deemed to start from 8th September 2017 when he was playing up to 28th September 2017? Surely he was therefore playing during his period of ineligibility and his ban should start on 28th September and end on 29th November 2019? In effect his ban isn’t 14 months.
Secondly, the rationale seems a bit strange. I fully agree that he was facing a troubling time and that he has mental health issues that were well known before the incident, so he’s not just using this as an excuse. However, I worry that the panel decided that his ban could be reduced as he took cocaine whilst intoxicated. This seems to be a bit of a loophole that will be exploited by others in the future.
Thirdly, Cas were right to sack him. The club can’t afford to pay someone for sitting around for 13 months. He’d also breached his contract and undermined the culture and values expected. Paying him for failing a drugs test would send out completely the wrong message to all the other players and staff.
There is a precedent for Cas to now recoup the transfer fee from Hardaker himself. He breached his contract and therefore the club can claim any financial loss as a result of this. The club may well recoup the money paid for him.
I think anyone who takes him on is taking a massive risk. His next screw up is always around the next corner. I’m afraid he is incapable of making the right decision when he is put into difficult situations off the field. I wouldn’t want the constant worry about what he’s going to do next and when. He’s just a ticking time bomb who will inevitably let his next club down at some point.
Finally, he has obviously got some really idiotic friends who he should be walking away from, but won’t. His mates got him off his face, supplied his cocaine and allowed him to take it even thought they know the consequences he might face, even if Zak himself was beyond the point of making a rational decision (again).

On a separate note, it’s poor form for the panel to make his personal issues so clear. Their constant reference to the Jake Livermore case makes it pretty obvious what happened to those who don’t already.

Clearly not, ‘Oh dear’ at ThePrinter for not detecting the obvious sarcasm.

Nice backtracking

Moon does something stupid at seventeen, moved on becomes a model professional. Hardacker seriall dickhwad who keeps coming out off it smelling of Roses. Not the same us it.

Not even sure it's the same Joel Moon, Moon was 19 in Dec 2007 not 17 and had made his Brisbane debut in 2006 and a dozen appearances in 2007 so unlikely to be described as just "a local teenager" rather than professional RL player.