jenny61_99
Premium Platinum
This current crisis that has hit the AFL is the worst I've seen in my lifetime. As I've been alive for over half a century, that's a fairly long time! I'm not your average, every day female with a passing interest in AFL. I am passionate about it. I watch several games every week. Subscribe to Foxtel purely for the Footy Channel. My husband never has a problem if he wants to watch or go to the footy. My son is a Div 1 footy player in the AFLBJ Under 12s.
I work within the drug design and development industry (molecular biosciences), so when the word peptide was mentioned I took notice. It has been quite cathartic to actually be the "google hero" I've been accused of. I've enjoyed reading the ACC report, the WADA code (which I knew very little about before this) and combing the ASADA website. As new information came to hand, I'd dig in and do some more research. The substances have been particularly interesting.
At first I was very sympathetic with Essendon. I am a self proclaimed James Hird fan and I am very disappointed that this has happened under his watch. The longer this goes, and the more information that comes to hand, the angrier I am getting. And not just because of the continued denials by Essendon fans (I get their blind support of their Club, I do - I had to do it myself during the Adelaide debacle recently), or their smugness (convinced they'll find a loophole somewhere, somehow, that will find them blameless in all this). I think now it's gone way beyond the Essendon issue.
Young athletes - men and women - are dying in their pursuit of success. Heart attacks, liver failure, some early onset cancers, blood clots, anuerysms. All caused by or contributed to taking substances they believe will give them ultimate success. In some cases these substances have had very little real research done on them. In some, the substances have not yet been approved for human use. Perhaps of more concern, are the substances that are being used for off-label purposes (drugs prescribed for one purpose, but used for another).
In this case, Essendon - through Dank - have come up with a complicated "intervention" program, aimed at making the team faster, bigger, stronger - in a short amount of time. I say complicated because he has listed substances that are so far beyond the realms of normalcy it beggars belief.
Are we THAT desperate in our desires to win a premiership, that we stoop to this level?
Taking one substance - let's talk the most obvious - the peptide AOD9604 - in isolation. This drug has not yet achieved approval for human use by any regulatory authority anywhere in the world. Regardless of it's performance enhancing or recovery properties (or not), whether it showed side effects in subjects or not, it has not yet achieved approval for human use. The trials that have been carried out on this drug, have been done looking for the results of weight loss - particularly the loss of adipose fat tissue in the abdomen. The substance was taken orally in tablet form. To assume that it is therefore safe for elite athletes to use, for a purpose other than originally intended, administered in a completely different way to the trials, is fool hardy at best. At worst, it is considered prohibited under the WADA code.
If you then combine that unknown quality with other substances that appear to be also being used for off-label purposes, the potential for unknown side effects rises significantly.
Has Dank conducted significant research on the use of or combination of these substances? Does he know the long term effects? You know he hasn't - and that's why the players were asked to sign documents that accepted there could be risks involved.
What will stop this push for finding the edge over our opponents? The death of a footballer? Will we be happy to say keep going until then?
That is why this has to stop now. ASADA and the AFL MUST come down on this hard now. The message that it is completely unacceptable must be loud and strong. Essendon (and any other club found guilty of doing this) must be punished severely. That is the only way we can ensure the safety of our players.
I work within the drug design and development industry (molecular biosciences), so when the word peptide was mentioned I took notice. It has been quite cathartic to actually be the "google hero" I've been accused of. I've enjoyed reading the ACC report, the WADA code (which I knew very little about before this) and combing the ASADA website. As new information came to hand, I'd dig in and do some more research. The substances have been particularly interesting.
At first I was very sympathetic with Essendon. I am a self proclaimed James Hird fan and I am very disappointed that this has happened under his watch. The longer this goes, and the more information that comes to hand, the angrier I am getting. And not just because of the continued denials by Essendon fans (I get their blind support of their Club, I do - I had to do it myself during the Adelaide debacle recently), or their smugness (convinced they'll find a loophole somewhere, somehow, that will find them blameless in all this). I think now it's gone way beyond the Essendon issue.
Young athletes - men and women - are dying in their pursuit of success. Heart attacks, liver failure, some early onset cancers, blood clots, anuerysms. All caused by or contributed to taking substances they believe will give them ultimate success. In some cases these substances have had very little real research done on them. In some, the substances have not yet been approved for human use. Perhaps of more concern, are the substances that are being used for off-label purposes (drugs prescribed for one purpose, but used for another).
In this case, Essendon - through Dank - have come up with a complicated "intervention" program, aimed at making the team faster, bigger, stronger - in a short amount of time. I say complicated because he has listed substances that are so far beyond the realms of normalcy it beggars belief.
Are we THAT desperate in our desires to win a premiership, that we stoop to this level?
Taking one substance - let's talk the most obvious - the peptide AOD9604 - in isolation. This drug has not yet achieved approval for human use by any regulatory authority anywhere in the world. Regardless of it's performance enhancing or recovery properties (or not), whether it showed side effects in subjects or not, it has not yet achieved approval for human use. The trials that have been carried out on this drug, have been done looking for the results of weight loss - particularly the loss of adipose fat tissue in the abdomen. The substance was taken orally in tablet form. To assume that it is therefore safe for elite athletes to use, for a purpose other than originally intended, administered in a completely different way to the trials, is fool hardy at best. At worst, it is considered prohibited under the WADA code.
If you then combine that unknown quality with other substances that appear to be also being used for off-label purposes, the potential for unknown side effects rises significantly.
Has Dank conducted significant research on the use of or combination of these substances? Does he know the long term effects? You know he hasn't - and that's why the players were asked to sign documents that accepted there could be risks involved.
What will stop this push for finding the edge over our opponents? The death of a footballer? Will we be happy to say keep going until then?
That is why this has to stop now. ASADA and the AFL MUST come down on this hard now. The message that it is completely unacceptable must be loud and strong. Essendon (and any other club found guilty of doing this) must be punished severely. That is the only way we can ensure the safety of our players.
