Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates has demanded a wide-ranging investigation into prescription drug use among athletes – and proposed football codes start searching players and handing out heavy penalties as deterrents.
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Coates expressed his views to Fairfax Media after a tumultuous week in which South Sydney players Dylan Walker and Aaron Gray were rushed to hospital after a near-death overdose on prescription drugs Oxycodone and Tramadol.
Walker and Gray were released from St Vincent's Hospital on Friday afternoon, but their experience has exposed a culture of prescription drug abuse in the NRL. "We hope everyone can learn from our lessons," Gray said. "Not just rugby league players."
The situation has prompted Coates to call out Australian Sports Commission chairman John Wylie to address the issue for all sports.
"The ASC should step up and look at this - I can't imagine John would want to dodge it," Coates said. "They've got the wider responsibility to Australian sport.
"What I recommend is an investigation by the ASC about how widespread it is, and if it is a problem then they need to develop a policy that would address better education, and the risk of using these drugs without supervision. It could then produce a regime where there are recommended penalties that each of the sports should be required to adopt as part of their compliance for receiving funding, as they do in adopting the WADA code."
Coates and the AOC banned the use of controversial sleeping drug Stilnox and similar hypnotics after their abuse by members of the men's 4x100m relay swim squad at a now infamous bonding session in Manchester before the London Olympics in 2012.
That followed revelations veteran swimmer Grant Hackett had relied heavily on Stilnox at the Athens Olympics.
The AOC has also introduced wide powers that allows it to search athletes and their possessions for not only banned substances but prescription medications that could be misused.
Coates suggests the NRL and other codes consider adopting the same stringent measures to clean up their sports.
"We have had and continue to have in our team membership agreements a built-in authority to check bags and possessions, and to look for any substance," Coates said. "Not just prohibited substances, but prescription substances that might be used without supervision.
"For these Olympic games [in Rio next year] we have made it clear that the prohibition of Stilnox and other hypnotic medications applies from the date of selection. That's the only period of our control, unlike football clubs which have their players for 365 days a year.
"We had our own wake-up call leading into the London Olympics when it was reported that Grant Hackett had been using Stilnox during the Athens Games. We moved quickly and banned hypnotics. And then, it seemed we didn't make that clear enough. They had the swimming team partying at a pre-Olympics camp in Manchester. They were using it for a bonding party. There were unconfirmed reports of Stilnox being used on the plane home. That's why we stepped in and banned them.
"It's not a matter of 'Did you know?' but 'You ought to have known'. It's no defence to say you didn't know.
"[Wylie] would know that the ASC isn't just about improving the performance of our elite sportsmen and women, but ensuring they continue to be proper role models. When mums and dads read about players popping pills, it's a turn off. It's something the federal government through the sports commission needs to look at and look at quickly."
The call from Coates puts further pressure on the NRL to examine the abuse of prescription drugs.
The NRL's integrity unit is awaiting a report from Souths about the circumstances that led to Walker and Gray being rushed by ambulance to hospital at 3.45am on Tuesday after a friend discovered both players clutching to life. Neither player elaborated when released from St Vincent's on Friday.
If the NRL isn't satisfied with the findings, it will conduct its own investigation.
The NRL says it has conducted more than 2000 in-house tests in the past two years to gauge the use of prescription drugs, and will wait until the end of the season if further action needs to be taken.
The indication has been that prescription use is limited - despite the claims from coaches, administrators and players that their use is "widespread".
Souths chief executive John Lee, who is also an ASC board member, dismissed the effectiveness of that testing. He said the NRL must "take a truth serum" and introduce hair follicle testing because current testing does not capture all painkillers.
Wylie is overseas and was not available for comment on Friday, but a spokesman said: "The ASC is always concerned about any matters involving the welfare of Australian athletes, but the primary responsibility for athlete welfare rests with each individual sporting organisation. The Australian Institute of Sport has a medication policy that adheres to world-best practice, providing a guide for sports, athletes and medical practitioners. There are no plans for an investigation."
