Right: it has been reported that even very young sports players have used "legal" drugs, including the case of a junior footballer being hospitalised after crushing No-Doz tablets into an already caffeine-laden "energy drink"
Arguments in favour of the AFL prohibiting players' use of caffeine and sleeping pills
1. Sleeping pills and caffeine can be injurious to playersDepending on the type of sleeping pill used they can have a variety of side-effects. In addition to common side effects like dry mouth, dizziness, sleepiness the next morning, diarrhea, rashes, nausea and vomiting these drugs have some potentially serious dangers - decreased sex drive, chest pain, abdominal pain and light-headedness.
Other possible side-effects include nausea, headache, dizziness and prolonged drowsiness are common side effects of these drugs. Light-headedness, abnormal sense of well being, episodes of amnesia, allergic reactions, facial swelling, abnormal sleep behaviors, weakness of muscles, coordination problems, low blood pressure, blurred vision, and liver failure are further serious adverse effects.
Taken in too large a dosage or in combination with other drugs including alcohol sleeping pills can cause death.
Patients suffering with depression and addicted individuals are at particular risk with these drugs.
Too much caffeine, especially over an extended period of time, can lead to a number of physical and mental conditions. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) states, 'The 4 caffeine-induced psychiatric disorders include caffeine intoxication, caffeine-induced anxiety disorder, caffeine-induced sleep disorder, and caffeine-related disorder not otherwise specified (NOS).'
An overdose of caffeine can result in a state termed caffeine intoxication or caffeine poisoning. Its symptoms are both physiological and psychological. Symptoms of caffeine intoxication include: restlessness, nervousness, excitement, insomnia, flushed face, diuresis, muscle twitching, rambling flow of thought and speech, paranoia, cardiac arrhythmia or tachycardia, and psychomotor agitation, gastrointestinal complaints, increased blood pressure, rapid pulse, vasoconstriction (tightening or constricting of superficial blood vessels) sometimes resulting in cold hands or fingers, increased amounts of fatty acids in the blood, and an increased production of gastric acid. In extreme cases mania, depression, lapses in judgment, disorientation, loss of social inhibition, delusions, hallucinations and psychosis may occur.
It is commonly assumed that only a small proportion of people exposed to caffeine develop symptoms of caffeine intoxication. However, because it mimics organic mental disorders, such as panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, a growing number of medical professionals believe caffeine-intoxicated people are routinely misdiagnosed and unnecessarily medicated.
Because caffeine increases the production of stomach acid, high usage over time can lead to peptic ulcers, erosive esophagitis, and gastroesophageal reflux disease. It can also lead to nervousness, irritability, anxiety, tremulousness, muscle twitching, insomnia and heart palpitations.
2. Players taking 'uppers' and 'downers' is not a positive image for the AFL to be promoting
It has been argued that an image of alternately taking caffeine 'uppers' and sleeping pills as 'downers' is not a positive image for the AFL to promote. Elite sportsmen are regarded as role models by many young people and so to have them behave in this manner is undesirable.
The substances some footballers are taking are legally available and, especially in the cae of caffeine tablets they are very easily available and able to be purchaeswithout a prescription. This means there is the real possibility that children and adolescents might consume caffeine supplements in imitation of their football heroes.
The Victorian premier, John Brumby, has stated, 'I think what's come out through this general debate is amongst footballers there's obviously plenty that would appear to take legal drugs; No-Doz before a game and something to put them to sleep after.
Those drugs are legal, but I don't think they send a good example.'
In terms of the imitative behaviour of some young footballers, a Perth high school employee has stated that junior footballers, as young as 14, have taken caffeine pills to enhance their performance during training sessions. The source stated that a 14-year-old boy had been taken to hospital during the last school term after crushing 10 tablets of No-Doz caffeine, adding the powder to a popular caffeine-based energy drink and sharing it with his local football club teammates.
World Anti-Doping Agency president John Fahey has stated,'It is a very bad look when role models are actually doing this. The example, in my view is very, very bad for young sports people. I would certainly say to medical staff of these professional clubs that they ought to have a damned good look at the impact of trying to get some advantage through taking caffeine.'
3. These two products can become a destructive cycle
It has been claimed that footballers using caffeine supplements to try to get a competitive edge and then taking sleeping tablets so that they are able to sleep can become a destructive cycle from which it is difficult to break out.
Paul Dillon, from Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia, has noted that a cocktail of stimulants and depressants could have an unpredictable impact on the body.
Mr Dillon stated, 'People use caffeinated pills for stimulant purposes, to keep them awake, to get their heart rate pumping.
The situation with sportsman is that the heart's pumping, they're going out there in front of crowds of 50-60,000 people, you're event going to be more pumped, then add on to that you're winning a game. Bang, you're really going to be pumping.
This is the old cycle of uppers and downers, taking something to get you going, and then once you actually are over that, take something to knock you out again. That's a very dangerous road to travel.'
4. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is considering banning caffeine
John Fahey, the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), has indicated that the organisation's medical committee could place caffeine back on the banned substances list amid fresh concerns over its effect on athletes.
Mr Fahey stated, 'It concerns me from the point of view of, firstly, the health of athletes. Anything that's taken in large quantities, you have to be a little bit concerned about the impact it might have on the health of an athlete.
But it [caffeine] is at this point of time not on the prohibited list of the WADA code and therefore there is nothing against it from the point of view of breaching that code.
Every year that committee meets, it considers what evidence there is available and it gets that evidence from the laboratories around the world.
It will consider it [the status of caffeine], as it has for the last few years. That doesn't mean it will be necessarily put back on the prohibited list, but it will be considered again this year in September.'
5. Some clubs have openly promoted the use of caffeine
It has been claimed that at least since 2004, when caffeine was removed from the World Anti-Doping Agency's banned list, many football players and clubs have used the substance extensively as a way of legally enhancing onfield performance.
In May 2010 a photograph was printed of a Brisbane trainer handing out caffeine pills during a half-time break. The image was very badly received by a variety of sport experts who stressed the health dangers of excessive caffeine use.
Former Geelong team doctor and commentator, Peter Larkins, has stated, 'I almost fell off my chair. Here we are trying to promote sport and I thought it was a horrible thing for people watching at home to see elite footballers using it. They'd be thinking "why couldn't my kids use it".'
Dr Larkins further stated, 'Club doctors argue they have to get the best out of players and they're not breaking the rules, but I think behind the scenes the AFL will have some discussions with clubs about the combination of stimulants and sedatives.' However he hopes that this recent publicity will alter how clubs use caffeine. Dr Larkins hopes, 'There has to be some message come out of this Cousins story.'
The Australian Medical Association suggested that doctors who supported handing out caffeine tablets before and during games were not acting in the players' best interests.