I read the quotes from Spence on there. Maybe I should ask him to explain why an increase of 628 drug tests to "maybe 650" is deemed to be enough.

Prevention should be the way to go. A lifetime ban from premier RL competitions should prevent all but the dumbest of players from taking the drugs route.

Would be interesting to know more of Cullens thoughts.

I hope he was referring more to recreational drug use rather than performance enhancing.

I'm not condoning recreational drugs, but they are rife in society and I personally would not be surprised if more young players have been taking cocaine than just Hock.

This isn't meant to be a dig at rugby players but more a sad view of society in general.

Recreational drugs are far far more prevalent in society than most people like to acknowledge, I reckon more people are doing them than aren't, especially people who are in successful careers. Everyone that works in the City is on coke, they snort taxpayers money up their nose every night to show their gratitude for the bail outs.

Maybe the law should start acting and bang people up for using recreational drugs, whether or not you have intention to supply.You get a custodial sentence if you've been looking at kiddie porn on the internet, because they are trying to kill the industry by punishing the user....so why not do the same with drugs?

Bang on Sally - without meaning to go too off topics successive governments go on about the war on drugs - if they're serious start targeting demand rather than just supply and it will soon reduce.

I also think you're probably right on the more do than don't - certainly amongst younger generations.

A slight stereotype on the city front though!

i tataly agree with what is said and we should get rid of them full stop
well done to cullen for saying what he did

Officially PC was supposed to have offered his resignation after the Castleford game which was initially refused but then both parties agreed to separate by mutual consent. Do you know better?

I have thought for a while now that teams should do there own drug testing on top of the official tests to catch drug users before the player and club are embaressed. I got one done in 5 minutes for a job interview, surely it can't be that difficult

Depends on how to test. Most employers that test do it through urine. It gives an instant resuly and also allows a sample to be sent to a laboratort for thorough analysis if necessary.

On Boots N All they mentioned about testing through blood. This is highly unusual and the most expensive way of doing it. Also there are debates on whether this is legal as it is an invasive procedure and involves puncturing the skin. I assume the RFL have this written into players contracts, otherwise they could be open to all sorts of law suits.

Putting it into context. Testing is a bloody expensive excercise. Clubs doing it themselves puts the control for taking the tests away from the RFL & is open to potential abuse from clubs.

The current rate for testing makes RL teh 3rd highest tested sport there is (after football & athletics).

The RFL have got this right. The proposed testing levels (600+) spread over 28 rounds means the RFL will turn up at each game, randomly test 4 players from both teams playing. Not tell you who - just randomly test 4.

That should be enough to frighten players into behaving. Those that don;t deserve all they get.

Malcolm Alker said on GMR last night that on average he is tested about four or five times a year.

That is quite a lot of tests and I would suggest only the stupid would try to cheat and only the lucky get a way with it.

In my own opinion recreational and performance enhancing drugs should betreated separately. I like the "Hamsterdam" model from Baltimore.

Fo' sho. Where would we set that scheme up? There's a few potential sites around the region where there'd be very little socio-economic impact. Can just see Hock shuffling down the street with a shopping trolley, touting his whiteys...

Oh dear you've just been sallied

How is this stat derived, is it on total number of tests thoughout the sport or as a percentage relative to number of players? Just curious as obviously there are far more people playing professional soccer than rugby league.

On the point of blood tests being "invasive" I don't think it is illegal or against anyone's rights - they did em at the Beijing Olympics. Also, where I work, we are subject to random urine tests. Fail one and you have to pay for a blood test to be carried out if you want a chance of keeping your job, think it's about 70 quid.

Cull raised the point about Growth Hormone on B'n'A, it's a fact that this performance enhancer is very hard to test for and I'm almost certain that urine tests can't detect it.
Thought Carney was a little too reserved on the programme but Cull more than made up for it with his passionate rants. VERY good prog this week

Excluding Cup games there are 27 rounds of with 14 clubs = 378 instances.
Multiply that by 17 for the number of players 6426, which means with the current testing there is more than a 90% chance of a drug user getting of scott free.