By KAVISHA DI PIETRO

Players in suburban and country football leagues should face random drug tests, community leaders say.

Warragul Police youth resource officer Kevin McLaren said all football clubs should consider drug testing. 

“I’ve got 12 and 14-year-olds using ice and they’re playing footy. Something needs to be done,” Sen-Constable McLaren said.

The way to start testing stemmed from the top, with the AFL needing to allocate funding towards the grassroots level to help clubs, he said.

“The AFL have a responsibility to help fund this as a governing body.”

Random drug testing can range from $80 onwards, however Sen-Constable McLaren said he believed if clubs were serious about it they would “get it done” and money would not be  an issue.

Youth Worker Les Twentyman agreed.

“Sport is by far the best human resource for getting kids away from the crime cycle … now the very vehicle they use as a resource is becoming contaminated,” he told the Herald Sun earlier this year.

Sen-Constable McLaren said he believed the reason for the spike in addiction rates to 60 per cent was because the drug was so easily accessible.

Old Xavierians Football Club coach Peter Callinan said he did not think clubs could be immune unless strict testing regimes were encouraged. All leagues should be kept informed and government resources allocated accordingly.

However, there have been a number of concerns associated with the notion of testing amateur sportsmen and women.

“Testing is a messy issue even at an elite level of sport. I think introducing testing into lower levels of sport can only be fraught with the same issues,” Mr Callinan said.

He said he did not think random drug testing would be an easy process and there were concerns regarding what happened if someone did test positive.

Sen-Constable McLaren said to break down the ring, there were about “10 layers” and it did not just end at one person, making the process of dealing with someone who tested positive increasingly difficult.

Construction workers can now face mandatory drug and alcohol testing on-site of government-funded projects.

Sen-Constable McLaren asked why amateur football clubs should be any different when they were experiencing the same issues.

“Ice is driving our crime rates,” he said.

Mr Callinan said he believed that in order to stop the issue of ice infiltrating sporting clubs “there has to be a level of self-determination in society and life”.

“At what stage do people become responsible for their own actions?”