To QMJHL followers, is it really true?

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Canadian

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Mar 1, 2002
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I was just wondering if the "Q" was full of drug users, cuz this article makes it sounds quite disturbing. These players aren't even in the NHL, and they are using these drugs. Since when did junior hockey become a man's game?

http://www.tsn.ca/chl/news_story.asp?id=63693

Report: Drug use rampant in QMJHL

Canadian Press

12/9/2003

MONTREAL (CP) - Lighter schedules and shorter bus rides are needed to combat drug use among players in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, agent Gilles Lupien said Tuesday.

Responding to a front page story in Montreal La Presse that said drug use was rampant among junior players, Lupien said the league and team owners are to blame for placing too much strain on their 16-to-20 year old players.

He said the QMJHL teams should play only within their own division during the regular season and that each team's schedule be reduced from 72 to about 50 games.

Lupien estimated that up to 40 per cent of juniors use drugs to help them sleep during long bus rides or to get their adrenaline flowing before games.

"We can't blame the kids," said Lupien. "You see the way they travel, how far they travel and how often they travel.

"Going from Montreal to Cape Breton is like going from Montreal to Winnipeg or Florida."

League president Gilles Courteau was in a meeting Tuesday morning and did not return a call.

Neither Canada's major junior hockey leagues nor the National Hockey League has a drug testing program.

Richard Pound, head of the Montreal-based World Anti-Doping Agency, said it is up to governments to put pressure on leagues to take measures to stop players from using potentially harmful drugs.

"The government could easily do that," said Pound. "You just say: `If you don't have a drug policy, we won't fund you, you can't use public rinks, etc."'

La Presse reported that substances used by some of the league's 380 hockey players include ephedrine, creatine, amphetamines, marijuana and various relaxants.

And the problem isn't limited to just a few of the league's 16 teams.

"There isn't a doctor in this league who hasn't seen cases of ephedrine use in recent seasons," Dr. Jean-Luc Betit, president of the committee of doctors in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, told the newspaper.

"Several times this season, we have had major cases, with symptoms like shaking, abdominal pain, serious muscle spasms, insomnia and stroke," he added.
 

Mephisto

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May 9, 2002
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Seriously, I wonder if the Q is "that" different from other junior sports. Whether it be other junior hockey leagues, or other minor leagues with male athletes around 15 to 20 years old.

Drugs aren't only in the Q but everywhere...

But talking about the Q, it is true.

Hopefully they do something about it...



Canadian said:
I was just wondering if the "Q" was full of drug users, cuz this article makes it sounds quite disturbing. These players aren't even in the NHL, and they are using these drugs. Since when did junior hockey become a man's game?

http://www.tsn.ca/chl/news_story.asp?id=63693

Report: Drug use rampant in QMJHL

Canadian Press

12/9/2003

MONTREAL (CP) - Lighter schedules and shorter bus rides are needed to combat drug use among players in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, agent Gilles Lupien said Tuesday.

Responding to a front page story in Montreal La Presse that said drug use was rampant among junior players, Lupien said the league and team owners are to blame for placing too much strain on their 16-to-20 year old players.

He said the QMJHL teams should play only within their own division during the regular season and that each team's schedule be reduced from 72 to about 50 games.

Lupien estimated that up to 40 per cent of juniors use drugs to help them sleep during long bus rides or to get their adrenaline flowing before games.

"We can't blame the kids," said Lupien. "You see the way they travel, how far they travel and how often they travel.

"Going from Montreal to Cape Breton is like going from Montreal to Winnipeg or Florida."

League president Gilles Courteau was in a meeting Tuesday morning and did not return a call.

Neither Canada's major junior hockey leagues nor the National Hockey League has a drug testing program.

Richard Pound, head of the Montreal-based World Anti-Doping Agency, said it is up to governments to put pressure on leagues to take measures to stop players from using potentially harmful drugs.

"The government could easily do that," said Pound. "You just say: `If you don't have a drug policy, we won't fund you, you can't use public rinks, etc."'

La Presse reported that substances used by some of the league's 380 hockey players include ephedrine, creatine, amphetamines, marijuana and various relaxants.

And the problem isn't limited to just a few of the league's 16 teams.

"There isn't a doctor in this league who hasn't seen cases of ephedrine use in recent seasons," Dr. Jean-Luc Betit, president of the committee of doctors in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, told the newspaper.

"Several times this season, we have had major cases, with symptoms like shaking, abdominal pain, serious muscle spasms, insomnia and stroke," he added.
 

TexSen

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Nov 20, 2003
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Canadian said:
Since when did junior hockey become a man's game?

The same time College sports did. (it always has been)

It has always been a stepping stone to the bigs. Athletes will always do what it takes to give them an edge.
 

PEli*

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As a Q follower, I wouldn't doubt it. Some of the roadtrips these young kids face are pretty rough. I don't think drugs are the answer but in some cases, what else can a person do?

If you can't sleep, you can't perform. If you don't perform, you won't play. If you don't play, you'll never make it to the big time. It seems like a terrible way to go about things but it is happening.

The scheduling is too rough in the Q and things could be done to ease the effects of a lengthy road trip.
 

ZombieMatt

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May 20, 2002
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I really don't see any surprise in hearing that junior athletes are using what essentially breaks down to wake ups and sedatives.

I don't like to downplay it, but the way the article is titled (I read it earlier on the tsn.ca website), I figured I was going to read an article about rampant crack use or something. Any sort of drugs isn't cool, but the unfortunate reality is that these stats are probably pretty common around kids their age (and a few years older) in Canada.

Living in residence, probably 75% of the kids I live with have used a wake up or sedative to help them study over the past 2 weeks.

I don't know, I don't mean on sounding ignorant, but these stats are hardly "shocking" or surprising when you consider the nature of the drugs that they're reported using.
 

paul99

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Sep 5, 2003
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The report comes from the well respected La Presse newspaper. Both sport journalists, including Rejean Tremblay, who made the inquiry are very credible. The made interview with about 10 people, including RCMP, the chief doctor of QMJHL, player agents and former NHLers Gilles Lupien and Enrico Ciccone. So, there is no way the value of the report could be contested. The problem is so obvious tht Gilles Courteau, chair of th QMJHL already responded today that there will be drug tests conducted next year.

Ciccone and Lupien decided to talk about that problem because they are sick to see kids from 16 YO taking such amount of drugs.
 

Slay

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May 24, 2003
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If Q has it probably other leauges has it too. Is there dope control at WJC? ;) kidding

Aside from Canadian hockey, there is similar problem in student sport of US, >90% of young athlets use dope.
 
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paul99

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Sep 5, 2003
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Montreal, PQ
Slay said:
If Q has it probably other leauges has it too. Is there dope control at WJC?

Aside from Canadian hockey, there is similar problem in student sport of US, >90% young athlets use dope.

Until a year or two, I forgot, Q had his Drug's politic. But as it was the only league in CHL to care about, Q league decided to drop his politic to stay at pair with the two others league in CHL. Q was afrai to loose players to WHL and OHL and to loose players selected by NHL teams.
 

Bud The Spud*

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It's unfortunate and there are probably other leagues with problems. I'm sure Canada and the US are not the only countries with such problems. I can just imagine the excuses other countries will use if Canada wins the WJC. Headline: "Canada wins the gold because the players are all doped up." :shakehead
 

Bud The Spud*

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whlfanatic said:
This is about the Q and another example of them doing all they can to beat the O and dub come memorial cup time. I'm sure there are some in the dub and O that are donig it to but until its been discovered don't try and change the topic. Boo hoo they got a long road trip schedule, try travelling 16 hours to the prairies and going back and forth 7 and 8 hours a day. Big freaking deal, thats not an excuse.

WTF? I never said there were any excuses for it because there's not. Somebody brought up the WJC and that is why I mentioned it. So don't tell me not to change the topic. I'm not.
 

Slay

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May 24, 2003
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Bud The Spud said:
I'm sure Canada and the US are not the only countries with such problems.

Probably, but i don't think any country has such huge dope problems in student sport as USA.
 
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Bud The Spud*

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Slay said:
You wrong again because she is not a man :D

I am becoming accustomed to being referred to as a guy on these boards. :joker: A lot of people here assume there are no women members on these boards because we are very much a minority.:D
 

CharlieGirl

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whlfanatic said:
BOOO HOOOOO......The WHL and OHL have the same long road trips and there hasnt been any indications YET of anyone using drugs.

The OHL has no where near the lengthy road trips the Q and the W have - I'm guessing the longest trip is probably 8-10 hours (Ottawa to Sault Ste Marie?) A lot of clubs are within an hour or two.

I'm not saying that the problem doesn't exist in the OHL - I have no doubt that, if the problem exists in the Q, it exists in the other leagues as well. Hopefully the CHL does something to address the situation before there is a death or permanent damage to a player.
 

BCCHL inactive

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whlfanatic said:
BOOO HOOOOO......The WHL and OHL have the same long road trips and there hasnt been any indications YET of anyone using drugs.

If you think there aren't any WHL and/or OHL players who use drugs, then I don't know what to say.

I think it's time for duane, crock, shazata, whlfanatic, or whatever your next username will be, to get off his anti-Québec horse.
 

gb701

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Feb 21, 2003
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Slay said:
If Q has it probably other leauges has it too. Is there dope control at WJC? ;) kidding

Aside from Canadian hockey, there is similar problem in student sport of US, >90% of young athlets use dope.

As any player who has gone into the Hockey Canada program can tell you - yes, there is doping control at the WJC - and the players who are selected are warned about how it works, what it catches, and the risk to the team if even one player fails. The good news is that hockey is actually a relatively clean sport so not many have to drop out or duck the test.

On the story, if they are including creatine the story is going overboard - it is not (yet) a banned substance, at least unless the rules have very recently changed. Not to say I agree with its use, but it was legal the last time I checked.

And for league comparisons, if doping is as common as the story suggests in the Q, then that league is far beyond anything being done out west.

Final comment - this is a team and league issue - these young "boys" leave home at 16 or 17 and if they are using drugs on road trips, it is only because teams either encourage it or allow it to happen. Not a bad thing the story broke - if I was a parent I would want some answers about now.
 

BCCHL inactive

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whlfanatic said:
Hey Mr.Referee who thinks he knows it all. Did I say it wasn't used in the Dub or O? I said it hasnt been found yet. I know for a fact its used in the W.

Nice try to cover your own ass. I probably should have used this comment...

"Just another example of the Q trying to do all it can to cheat"

If you know for a fact that the WHL and OHL use drugs, then aren't they cheating too?

That, and you are anti-Québec...you have been spouting the anti-Québec rhetoric forever, and it is making me, and most likely a lot of other users sick.
 

PEli*

Guest
whlfanatic said:
BOOO HOOOOO......The WHL and OHL have the same long road trips and there hasnt been any indications YET of anyone using drugs.

Just another example of the Q trying to do all it can to cheat, much like how they throw all the star players onto one team with hopes on winning a Mcup.

Wow.

One entry found for ignorant.


Main Entry: ig·no·rant
Pronunciation: 'ig-n(&-)r&nt
Function: adjective
Date: 14th century
1 a : destitute of knowledge or education <an ignorant society>; also : lacking knowledge or comprehension of the thing specified <parents ignorant of modern mathematics> b : resulting from or showing lack of knowledge or intelligence <ignorant errors>
2 : UNAWARE, UNINFORMED
- ig·no·rant·ly adverb
- ig·no·rant·ness noun
synonyms IGNORANT, ILLITERATE, UNLETTERED, UNTUTORED, UNLEARNED mean not having knowledge. IGNORANT may imply a general condition or it may apply to lack of knowledge or awareness of a particular thing <an ignorant fool> <ignorant of nuclear physics>. ILLITERATE applies to either an absolute or a relative inability to read and write <much of the population is still illiterate>. UNLETTERED implies ignorance of the knowledge gained by reading <an allusion meaningless to the unlettered>. UNTUTORED may imply lack of schooling in the arts and ways of civilization <strange monuments built by an untutored people>. UNLEARNED suggests ignorance of advanced subjects <poetry not for academics but for the unlearned masses>.

If you think that this is Q-exclusive, you've got a bit of learning to do, pal.

And don't all teams stock up for the Memorial Cup? I guess not. This is just another example of the Qonspiracy. That's right. The Qonspiracy. I bet Gilles Corteau (Commish) is secretly planning to steal the Memorial Cup and melt it down to a trophy shaped like a plate of poutine!

Same long road trips, eh? Ottawa to Sydney is a lot like those nasty Lethbridge to Brandon trips, right? Sure, no doubt.
 

PEli*

Guest
whlfanatic said:
Yeah teams do stock up, not with 10 player deals like in the Q. Don't try and hide the fact the Q picks one or 2 teams that have a legitimate chance to "go for it" and stock them up because its true. Just take a look at past deals.



Anyway this is about drugs, I know of 1 or 2 guys in the dub that have done it but its not what the Q has been accused of. Lethbridge to Brandon? Try Kelowna to Brandon and then Moose Jaw and then Swift Current and then Saskatoon and play 5 games in 6 nights and then drive another 16 hours after the 5th game home. Not gettin any sympathy.


Again, I'd like to point you towards the definition of ignorant.

"The Q picks one or 2 teams that have a legitimate chance to go for it and stock them up..."

So the league itself picks a couple of teams and somehow forces teams to make deals? Yeah, another brilliant nugget. I guess outlawing deadline deals is a good idea. Since trades that make Q teams better is unfair for the rest of the country, they shouldn't be allowed, right? There's nothing stopping a team in the WHL from making a deal to improve themselves. If a couple of teams agree to make a trade that will help both teams, they're allowed to make that deal.

You only know of one or two guys that have done it in the W? I'm not surprised. You're not WHL personell and you've probably got no business relationship with the W. Other than buying tickets to your favorite teams' games, you have nothing to do with the W and just because you don't think it goes on, doesn't mean you're right.
 
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