Yeah this is true. I used to send lads for Drugs and alcohol tests in my former job. Cocaine is usually up to 2 days in the blood but as Slugger rightly says. Your hair is like a tree, you can read it like a timeline. Remember when Britney Spears walked into the hairdressers and shaved her hair off and everybody thought she had gone loopy? She was in a custody battle and had to provide samples to be analysed for drugs. Not so loopy after all but the media bought it.

On the subject in hand. Walker is an idiot. I have seen many rugby players doing it. I have even walked in on Gareth Hock doing it in the toilets with 2 of his mates before he got caught. I think the RFL need to take a hard line on this now. Automatic 5 year ban. No excuses.

Thanks for that, interesting.

The thing is if you dye your hair they can't test it for drugs which could account for all the players dying there hair blond throughout the season under the guise of some sort of bonding excuse

To be honest i have no idea at all whether hair dye would mess the test up, however what i will say is that sometimes Wigan players turn out with blonde hair, although there is no conspiracy involved in that one i am afraid. Quite amusingly, that is Shaun Wane's punishment for being late for training.

All the leeds players dyed their hair blond

The whole drug culture stinks throughout society, not just amongst sports people. I believe in hardline punishment for ALL offenders. What I can't understand is why the NHS and suchlike terat smokers with such disdain, and alcoholics a little less so, yet they bend over backwards to help drug addicts.

It's been a problem for years I'd like to know if other teams been randomly tested. A unamed group of players from a certain club in Spain had bags of the stuff. U can't tell me sandow was playing clean all last year . Rubbish just not been tested. Walkers a idiot but they must test more teams and not just this game as the scapegoat.

I'm on both sides of this fence.
Coke isn't performance enhancing quite like other bands drugs are so in my mind shouldn't be treated the same by the sport or drugs monitors.
However it isn't appropriate for a player either same as getting bladder Ed on alcohol.

If I ran a club I'd happily test ever player (and staff) every week.
If the cost is too high I would have very regular random tests on everyone and a few regular ones too.... there is just no place for it.

Drugs have been the scourge of society worldwide for donkeys years. They wreck lives (not just the idiots taking them!) and they make the scum of society who supply them rich, and often murderous in their efforts to ply their filth.
I take a hard line on them. IF proven then Walker should literally walk.
I don't want my great club tainted by drugs of any form. NO EXCUSES. Get rid.

I think the last part of your sentence is the exact point. Yes it is common place these days, however these people aren't a normal jack the lad off the street. They are supposed to be role models. If i got tested at my place of work with drugs in my system i would be sacked on the spot. I worked in an industry where i would be tested regularly. The people doing the test would give you a form to fill in beforehand and it gives you the option to declare anything you have had which could mess the test up. Cough medicine, painkillers etc. If you have had any of those and you don't declare it then you fail the test because it shows up. Cannabis is in your system for up to 30 days, cocaine for usually about 2 and steroids for up to 2 years. If you are in a job where random testing is common place then to chance it you really have to be an idiot.

No its not performance enhancing its an illegal class A drug that carries a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison for possession enough said

Wow. I just looked it up.
It's up to 7 years in prison for possession and up to life and/or unlimited fine for supply and production.

Clearly they don't do the max every time but why on earth would you risk that.

It's still not performance enhancing in the same way but I agree it's rightly illegal and takes it outside sport as an issue.

In my last job before retirement I was a drug and alcohol tester I carried out tests mainly after accidents or incidents on railway staff, however some companies do have random test carried out on their staff
I sub contracted to BUPA, who were just about to incorporate hair testing which can detect minute amounts of illicit substances AND not just head hair either bold people can have samples taken from any site usually from arms or legs
The test process was so accurate it could identify the specific strain of drug even the country of origin

Crazy you can get 7 years for something like that yet a rapist can be walking free within a few months, the whole drug legalisation needs to be looked into as the current system is not working.