Drug policy review as Riewoldt hits out over Saint Fisher

THE AFL and AFL Players Association are reviewing the league’s illicit drugs policy, AFLPA chief Paul Marsh says.

St Kilda champion Nick Riewoldt has reignited debate about whether the league’s illicit drugs policy is too lenient against players after he took aim at the players association, saying it had failed former Saint Sam Fisher.

Fisher was charged last week with allegedly regularly trafficking large quantities of illicit drugs across state borders.

Riewoldt told On the Couch on Monday night that drug use was a “massive” issue among current and former players.

“It is a cautionary tale. Enough is enough. There are not a lot of Sam Fisher-type incidents but there are a lot of players slipping through the cracks,” he said.

On Tuesday, Marsh said the three-strikes illicit drugs policy was under review.

“We’re doing a review of it [the drugs policy] at the moment, we’ve had a very similar structured policy in place since it started, which is close to 15 years ago,” he said.

“We have initiated this conversation with the AFL about probably two years ago ... what we’re trying to do here is review the principles of it.

“But I think it is important to note that AFL players are just a subset of the community, most workers don’t have a policy like this, to take really hard approaches on these issues isn’t necessarily the answer.

“We are reviewing the principles . . . but we’re closing in on an outcome there.”

The AFL’s policy and testing regimen is still in place.

“The iteration of the policy, that covers all players, has been in place since 2015. An independent review is being conducted by independent experts, as a collaboration between the AFL and the AFLPA, to inform the development of the next iteration of the policy to ensure we are guided by best practice,” an AFL spokesman said.

Marsh refused to confirm if the AFLPA had been in touch with Fisher. He said it had to be a “joint responsibility”, when responding to Riewoldt’s claims.