Indifference to drugs in sports

Dave Hannigan, writing in the Irish Echo this week, takes a good shot at Ireland's sporting bodies and their lackadaisical attitude to drugs in Irish sports.

That a proven drug cheat is gainfully employed by a club at all says something about the culture around doping in Ireland. Everybody laughed when Colonel Gaddafi's son retained disgraced Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson to train the Libyan national soccer team. What's the difference between that and Hendricken working in provincial rugby? None at all. Except that Johnson was probably being paid more lavishly for his efforts.

I can't help wondering if some of the young athletes who have died recently are somehow connected to this indifferent attitude to performance enhancing drugs in Irish sports.