Upper House MP, Fiona Patten, has congratulated former Collingwood player, Dane Swan, on his honesty and openness in admitting his recreational drug use while playing football. She said that his comments, (contained in his recently released autobiography) were a breath of fresh air in the debate over drugs in the AFL.
Ms Patten is the only Member of Parliament in Australia who acknowledges her recreational use of marijuana.
‘Recreational drug use is not something that people should feel ashamed of because we all use drugs and we all self-medicate, using one kind of drug or another’, she said. ‘Dane Swan’s comments about his use of commonly used but not performance enhancing drugs, goes to the heart of people’s personal choices and freedoms. What he has said about his own drug use would be no more or less than that of many administrators, journalists, players and supporters of the code who might be choosing whisky or prescription drugs over marijuana or cocaine. His honesty on this matter takes more courage than taking a mark under pressure on the field and he should be congratulated for that.’
Ms Patten said that the public rarely heard the voice of personal users in the debate. “We only hear from police, politicians, doctors and sometimes those that have had a problem with drugs but we rarely hear from the overwhelming majority of people who choose to have a joint instead of a glass of wine. Or those who like to have a smoke or a line at a party. These people make up 99% of Australia’s drug users’.
She called on the AFL to acknowledge Swan’s honesty and come out in support of players who used marijuana instead of alcohol as their social tonic of choice. ‘In Portugal where drugs have been decriminalised, the stigma against people who have used drugs is much reduced and this allows people like Dane to come out much more easily. This is where the real education in drug use happens.’
‘Cannabis is not a performance enhancing drug and no player would smoke a joint and run onto the field. If the AFL was to be more tolerant of player’s use of marijuana instead of alcohol, many of the behavioural problems that beset the game would be done away with’.
Ms Patten called on Dane Swan to give evidence to the Parliamentary Committee on Drugs that she initiated last year and said she would like to hear from a range of players, coaches and administrators about drug culture in the AFL.
