It's time we eradicated this filth out of country and we can start by having blood tests for 3rd party liability insurance for drivers, machinery users and anyone in a "danger to other people" type of job, then politicians, lords, judges and stock brokers. If your not clean you shouldn't be in any of those jobs. If you get caught selling the stuff you go up 3 tax bands for life and bailiffs check the contents of your home every month to see income vs outgoings... after that we might have a chance.

Its legal to smoke and drink in this country and smoking and drinking to excess are not what you want professional sportsmen on your team doing - but it happens. Recreational cocaine use outside the match day window is something else you don't want your players doing but the moral police can sort that out. As much as taking coke is a mugs game, let the clubs and society in general deal with that. All the RL needs to do is get rid of those stupid or reckless enough to have it in their system on match days.

It's been getting to these epidemic levels for years..
I have seen the situation with my own eyes,,and Iv been in situations where I have thought this has got out of control..
Ten years ago it was all passed under the table now you will see a guy just pass it over the table...
All I know is if I had the talent gifted to me to play pro rugby I wouldn't be risking getting banned or damaging my health with that rubbish..
Also look at the amount of blokes queuing up to use the toilets at magic weekend,,Wembley etc,,loads of space at urinals your not telling me all them fellas need a crap...

lol, typical response from someone out of their depth. You imply that coke use is okay, that one should not be offended by professional sports people taking it, even less so iven that the sport/players are very much a part of the local community. Myself, I abhor banned/illegal drug use, tobacco use is barely tolerable.
But well done on exposing yourself as someone with a ridiculous and frankly dangerous attitude to drug taking!

You can choose to abhor whatever you want to abhor. Im not going to stop you.

We get it, you are a good person because you think someone who takes Cocaine, the processed version of a naturally occurring plant substance used as a stimulant for thousands of years by indigenous peoples is a terrible person and you are offended by my dangerous comparison to Caffeine a processed version of a naturally occurring plant substance used as a stimulant for thousands of years by indigenous peoples.

You are a good person because you are offended by the actions of people you have no relationship with, you are a fine upstanding gentleman because you are prepared to hold people to a higher moral standard simply because they are good at sport, you are a good moral person because you are fully prepared to castigate, to denigrate, to malign, those who dont abhor the same arbitrary substances you do. I am a bad and dangerous person because i dont think its my place to judge.

I don't know anybody who has died from drinking coffee , I do know someone who died as a direct consequence of taking cocaine

I haven't seen people become aggressive to the point of violence from drinking coffee ' I have seen people become aggressive to the point of violence from taking cocaine

Other opinions might well differ

its not really hard to find examples www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 37926.html as for violence about 10k people die per year from alcohol related diseases in the uk, there are about 600k alcohol dependent persons in the uk, there are about three quarters of a million alcohol related criminal offences per year, 64% of all stranger violence are alcohol related, 70% of all violent crime at weekends is alcohol related. Hypocrisy over what substances people choose to abuse does nothing to help anyone.

its not really hard to find examples www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 37926.html as for violence about 10k people die per year from alcohol related diseases in the uk, there are about 600k alcohol dependent persons in the uk, there are about three quarters of a million alcohol related criminal offences per year, 64% of all stranger violence are alcohol related, 70% of all violent crime at weekends is alcohol related. Hypocrisy over what substances people choose to abuse does nothing to help anyone.

I don't see anybody defending coke, or saying its not bad - some are more accepting of its use, some are happy to just leave folk to their own devices, and some are dead against it. The bigger point is that unfortunately it's now common place within the rugby league community, and particularly amongst players of both amateur and professional clubs. It's almost as much a part of the social scene as a beer nowadays - for most it goes hand in hand. It's sad, but true...

Someone mentioned a potential link with the apparent increase in heart issues amongst younger blokes in our sport and coke use - whilst I wouldn't necessarily tie it to coke, I have absolutely no doubt that a cocktail of various supplements (illegal and non-illegal), painkillers and recreational drugs are playing havoc with peoples long term health (both physical and mental) in our sport. I've seen first hand different super league players (current and ex) who's lives are an absolute mess because of a mixture of the above - often tied in with gambling problems too.

Coke is relatively cheap, leaves less of a hangover the next day and is becoming 'the norm' - it's easy to understand why it's the go to substance amongst the rugby league player demographic. What's even more ridiculous (and this is a sign of me starting to get old) is me and the couple of non-users at our club are actually ridiculed for being 'do-gooders' by the lads - it's all light hearted, but we're the ones who are seen as 'not being normal', because we're in the minority.

The discussion was coffee versus cocaine , other stimulant substances are available

Legalise it, tax it and hopefully we'll get better quality stuff.

can't believe I read that, I'll take that its tongue in cheek comment

Why? The time it's been cut with ket, plant food and gyprock dust it's more damaging. The Dutch have testing kits at nightclubs and the Portuguese have relaxed laws to great effect.

Whatever laws and systems we've got in place clearly aren't working.