Is this something to be concerned about?

[Judge Fudge]

The National Hockey League, responding to what it says is a possible increased use of cocaine among its players, has kick-started talks with the NHL Players Association to add the drug and others like it to the list of banned substances for which the league regularly monitors.

"The number of [cocaine] positives are more than they were in previous years and they're going up," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told TSN in an interview. "I wouldn't say it's a crisis in any sense. What I'd say is drugs like cocaine are cyclical and you've hit a cycle where it's an 'in' drug again.

"I'd be shocked if we're talking about a couple dozen guys. I don't want to be naïve here … but if we're talking more than 20 guys I'd be shocked. Because we don't test in a comprehensive way, I can't say."

Under the current terms of the NHL's drug-testing program, players are tested at least two times per season for performance-enhancing drugs such as steroids.

Every team is subject to team-wide testing once during training camp and once during the regular season. Individual players can also be selected for random testing during the regular season and playoffs. "If a player's name spits out eight times, he's subject to eight tests," Daly said.

During the off-season, the NHL drug-tests 60 players, the most the league is allowed to under its labour agreement.

One-third of the 2,400 player urine samples collected each year are screened more closely for drugs of abuse, such as cocaine. Those more comprehensive tests have shown cocaine use by NHL players is on the rise. Drugs, Daly said, will be a focus this season as the NHL tries to educate its players on the dangers of celebrity life.

"One major point of emphasis is party drugs like coke, ecstasy, molly, those types of drugs," Daly said. "When bad things happen, we try to address the bad things."

According to an NHLPA source, union executive director Donald Fehr last season raised the issue of cocaine use in closed-door meetings with numerous NHL clubs, canvassing players to ask why the drug is becoming more popular, and warning them about the health dangers and the consequences of being caught.

Over the next two months, as Fehr meets this year's crop of NHL players, he will again address the subject of cocaine, according to an NHLPA source.

Fehr said his discussions with players are confidential and noted that players would have to agree to alter their collective bargaining agreement with the NHL before the league could begin testing all urine samples for cocaine or other recreational drugs.

"We have a substance abuse and behavioural health (SABH) program which is designed to provide treatment opportunities for individuals who may have issues," Fehr said in an interview. "The nature of that program and how it operates is always subject to review, including at the present time. I discuss all potential changes to the SABH with the membership before we consider any changes to the CBA."


As matters in the NHL now stand, if "dangerously high" levels of cocaine are detected in a player's urine, the doctors who administer the league's drug program can "pierce the veil" of anonymity and directly contact a player to ask if they need help, Daly said.

Players convicted of a drug-related offense are automatically enrolled in the league's SABH program.

"The doctors decide how long you are in the program," Daly said. "It could be forever."

Doctors also decide how often players in the SABH program are drug tested.

"You can play while you are in the program if you are doing outpatient treatment," Daly said. "Your club might not even know you are in the program. But if you violate the terms of your treatment contract, the league and the NHLPA are notified because discipline becomes warranted."

The NHL and NHLPA aren't the only ones worried about a resurgence in cocaine use.

Last season, a senior Maple Leafs team executive met with Toronto Police Service officers to address concerns that Leafs players were purportedly using cocaine or were associating with those who were, according to two people familiar with the matter.

A Maple Leafs spokesperson declined to comment.

The NHL and the NHLPA have been dogged recently by a number of player arrests for drug-related offences. In April 2014, Tampa Bay Lightning player Ryan Malone was arrested and charged with cocaine possession and driving under the influence. Former Los Angeles Kings forward Jarret Stoll was charged this summer in Las Vegas with possessing cocaine, although he pleaded guilty to a lesser non-drug-related charge of breaching the peace.

Daly defended the NHL's handling of the Malone and Stoll arrests.

"Jarret pleaded to breach of the peace," Daly said. "In fairness, we met with Jarret. If we weren't satisfied with the answers he was giving us, we would have potentially disciplined him. We chose not to."

Malone, on the other hand, was not convicted and did not plead guilty to a drug-related offense while he was an NHL player, Daly said. In August 2014, Malone pleaded no contest to the DUI charge and received 12 months' probation, according to the Tampa Tribune. Pleading no contest is when a defendant neither admits to a charge nor disputes it. It's an alternative to pleading guilty.

Malone agreed to enter a diversion program on the drug charge. He played six games with the New York Rangers before being placed on waivers on Feb. 3, 2015.

There is way more but that http://www.tsn.ca/nhl-acknowledges-more-players-using-cocaine-1.372075