Shutterstock
Hockey’s back, and are you ready for some snow sprays? No, not the kind depicted above caused by a hard stop on the ice, but the kind you get up your nose, because you are sucking cocaine into it.
NHL players certainly are. Obviously now, who could expect a league populated by Eastern Europeans to have a lot of cocaine users> Everyone? Well, everyone except the NHL, who are now noticing an rise in positive tests.
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, [NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly] Daly said, will be a focus this season as the NHL tries to educate its players on the dangers of celebrity life.
Drugs will be a focus. Might want to reword that.
Currently, NHL players can’t be punished for a positive test, but the league wants to work with the player’s union to get cocaine on the list of banned substances. Apparently, they are unconcerned about how that might slow the pace of play.
Hey-yo.