Drugs in Sport.

This week it's Andrew Johns who was caught with one Ecstasy tablet in London. In the first instance he made a lame excuse that he felt someone ( a stranger) put it in his pocket!

Now he has admitted to having a drug habit for over 14 years....!

Does this mean that the ex captain of the Newcastle Knights and Australian Rugby League rep is/was above the law and the rules that are part of the code?
What a load!
Not that I like Wendell Sailor but at least he didn't make excuses and he copped his harsh penalty on the chin. I have newfound respect for Wendell for that aspect of his tale.
The lates is that the powers that be, well most of them, knew of 'Joey's' illegal, illicit drug habits and let it ride. Why is Andrew 'Joey' Johns more special than some other drug users in sport. I am disgusted and ashamed.

Everybody knew Johns took drugs, says Masters

August 31, 2007 10:46am

FORMER St George rugby league coach Roy Masters today said the league community has long known former Australian captain Andrew Johns was a drug taker.

Mr Masters said he was not at all surprised by Johns' admission yesterday that he had taken drugs throughout his stellar rugby league career.

"It's been well known in the league community for a long period of time that Andrew Johns was a drug taker," Mr Masters told Southern Cross Broadcasting.

"I've confronted him with it, confronted his manager with it, defamation laws prevent you from writing it."

His revelation comes as Premier Peter Beattie slammed Andrew Johns as a "dreadful" role model for children.

"I can understand the point about pressures and what that meant, and therefore I have some sympathy for him as an individual,'' Mr Beattie told ABC radio.

"But I have to say as a parent, this is a dreadful role model, and no one can say otherwise."

Mr Masters said Johns, who was also Newcastle Knights captain and is currently on leave from the club, where he has worked as a coaching consultant since his retirement with a neck injury in April, could have been one of the game's greatest coaches if not for his off-field problems.

"In my mind he was the greatest, because he basically could do everything - he was also a splendid thinker on the field, a great tactician," he said.

"He could have moved into a position of being one of the game's great coaches, however he's always had that problem with respect of his off-field activities, where he would have sent poor disciplinary messages as a coach that he could not have actually ever assumed that role in my mind."

Mr Masters said Johns had always used his "legendary humour" to distract people away from the drug issue and onto his problems with depression.

"This is the great cycle that drug takers get on," he said.

"They go on a drug binge, they come out of it and they go back on it again in order to relieve the symptoms. It's a massive problem in society and one that the AFL is just starting to wake up to, whereas rugby league has known it's had this problem for about 10 years."

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22338925-952,00.html

another report on this story...

Andrew Johns' 14-year drug hell
Exclusive by Dean Ritchie
August 30, 2007 08:00pm

A SHATTERED Andrew Johns last night made an explosive confession to being in the grip of a drug and alcohol problem throughout his entire career.

In the aftermath of his ecstasy arrest in London, Johns also revealed to The Courier-Mail he is battling depression.

The 33-year-old said he had regularly taken drugs from the age of 19 to "escape from the pressure" of being a famous rugby league player.

He described his attempts to avoid detection throughout his 12-year playing career as "Russian roulette".

"I have taken drugs throughout my career," an emotional and remorseful Johns admitted.

"Mainly in the off-season. At times it was like playing Russian roulette.

"I took the drugs to escape from the pressure and get away from being a football player."

In an amazing about-face from his earlier assertion that he had no intention of taking an ecstasy pill, which he said an unknown person placed in his jeans pocket at a London club, Johns came clean.

"I was going to take the pill for sure," he admitted.

"I'm not looking for sympathy, I put my hand up. I've done the wrong thing."

Johns vowed to give up his drug-taking, which has involved ecstasy and "other drugs" since his teenage years.

"I won't be taking drugs any more. It's not worth it," he said.

He also sent a dire warning to his former NRL colleagues, urging them to learn from his humbling, and public, arrest.

"Any players thinking of doing it should look at the humiliation and embarrassment this has not only caused me but mainly my family," Johns said.

Asked about his battle with depression, Johns confirmed he was a sufferer but did not want to elaborate.

"Yes. But I'm not comfortable talking about it," he said.

For Johns, the most difficult part of the drug arrest was admitting his crime to his son Samuel.

"That was the hardest part, explaining it to a seven-year-old what I've done," he said. "It broke my heart. Kids understand more than you think."

Johns' admission is certain to send shockwaves through the NRL.

News broke yesterday of Johns' arrest in London last Sunday when he was stopped at Kings Cross station during a drug operation by transport police after the annual Notting Hill Carnival. A search revealed an ecstasy tablet in his pocket.

He was not charged, but was given a "simple caution".

The retired Newcastle footballer has spent the past six weeks on a holiday throughout Europe and Britain.

Before his revelations last night, Johns maintained he was the innocent victim of a stranger who had placed the pill in his pocket without his knowledge. He said he had intended to dispose of the pill after it was "pushed" into his pocket at The Church – a notorious London club popular with Aussies.

"I stupidly forget about the tablet and instead of getting rid of it, I left myself in a situation I soon deeply regretted."

But last night on the Footy Show he revealed how he had routinely avoided NRL drug tests during his career.

"People probably ask 'How do you avoid the drug testers'. Well if you play Friday night and don't train on a Saturday or Sunday, then generally it is out (of your system) by Monday."

"You go out Saturday night and really hammer yourself, you don't know where you have been for two days, it can really get you down.

"Sometimes I would take it and feel like I was on the borderline, maybe I could go positive maybe negative, and I have scraped through."

"My past 10 or 12 years has been like a fairytale. I have been so lucky and experienced so much, but I think about some of the great times I have had and they have just been destroyed because I have been taking drugs. I look back now and I am so ashamed of it – it has destroyed some of the great times in my life."

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22335536-952,00.html#submit-feedback