Former premiership Eagles player Daniel Chick outlined in a News Corp article the extent of West Coast's drug-taking at the height of their most recent golden era.

Chick revealed that the use of cocaine, ecstasy, methamphetamine, Xanax, Valium and Prednisone, which is used to treat asthma, was commonplace at the club.

Larkins told 3AW on Thursday morning that West Coast benefited from the fact that drug testers rarely ventured to Western Australia.

"The point that people need to understand is that the drug testing program was primarily in action on the eastern border of Australia in that period of time," Dr Larkins said.

"The resources weren't available at AFL level to be testing all around the country."

Prednisone is banned under anti-doping rules unless a player receives permission to use it by ASADA – which Chick, Ben Cousins and Daniel Kerr all had at the time.

Chick detailed how he would consume large doses of Prednisone on game day with other stimulants.

Larkins said the drug was freely available while Chick was still playing and had the ability to make players feel "bulletproof".

"It is a controlled substance because of the strength of it and therefore clubs have to get permission to use it these days but they didn't 15 years ago which is when it was popular between 2000 and 2006 over in Perth,"  Larkins said.

"It has potentially a euphoria effect so it can affect the brain to give people a sense of being bulletproof and give them an 'upper' sensation."

Acting National President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, Michelle Lynch, told Perth's Radio 6PR on Thursday morning the cocktail of drugs Chick alleged he and other players took, could have given the players a boost if taken inappropriately.

"There is a mix group of drugs - there is a group of drugs in there called benzodiazepine, which is the Xanax and Diazepam,  and they normally provide a relief of anxiety and dampening of stressful situations and the Stilnox is also a sleep agent," she said.

"But when you use them with people who don't have those conditions or maybe not used to taking those medications it can have a stimulating effect as well and that is the concerning part because if they are misused inappropriately they have a harmful effect.

"They are safe to use in the right circumstances ... those medications are available on prescription for a reason, because they need consultation with a doctor to be able to prescribe them for the appropriate condition."

Chick also claimed teammates Ben Cousin and Daniel Kerr took large doses of asthma drug prednisone, which is banned under anti-doping rules. Dr Lynch backed Chick's claims the doses of prednisone he took were so high it made him feel like a "full-on meth addict".

"Very true and that's what happens when medication is used inappropriately and you have what is called a naive system, so your body responds to it very quickly," she said.

"They can have that up and done cycle, that becomes the really critical point of managing those situations. "

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