GAELIC GAMES/Drug-testing debate: Pharmacist Brendan Quinn tells Ian O'Riordan it's only a matter of time before a player tests positive

Pharmacist Brendan Quinn, who helped develop the GAA's Anti-Doping Code, believes that it is only a matter of time before a senior county player tests positive for a banned substance, whether taken by mistake or intentionally.

The debate about drug testing in the GAA reached heated levels this week and saw the Irish Sports Council rejecting claims by county managers and officials that their testing procedures were unsuitable, and then confirming that their testing would continue as planned throughout the championship.

Quinn believes most of the arguments from team managers were farcical, and while some confusion may remain over what substances can and cannot be taken, there is enough information and support available to ensure players avoid inadvertent positive tests.

"Of course no one wants to be caught inadvertently," he says. "But it's a bigger problem if someone is caught taking something advertently. I do believe some people are being naive about it, and that stimulants are being taken. The seriousness of it all may not have gotten home yet."

A former president of the Irish Pharmaceutical Union, Quinn is now based in Galway and has been involved with the GAA for a number of years. He compiled the list of legal and illegal over-the-counter medicines for the Anti-Doping Code and admits great care will be necessary if players are to stay within the rules.

"There has been some panic over the last few weeks but that came from lack of information. People are running away from the drug testing now that it's actually started but this panic should have been happening a year ago.

"There may have been some fear of the officiousness of the testers, and anything of this nature is going to be slow and laborious as well. Players do deserve to be treated with a bit of dignity and given time, but a lot of those arguments from managers were farcical. There is no easy way of doing something like this but the GAA had to go with it, and it wasn't before its time either.

"Certainly, confidentiality shouldn't be an issue, not unless the players are being made give their samples in full view of the public. Some team doctors have been expressing their concern as well, and their fears over liability, but that's what their game is all about."

Earlier this week, Dublin's Tommy Lyons and John O'Mahony of Galway were among the high-profile football managers to question the organisation as well as the need for drug testing within the GAA. Quinn wouldn't be so dismissive of possible abuse of performance-enhancing drugs.

"I can say openly that there have been inquiries from senior players all over Ireland about what they can and cannot take. And I believe there are substances being taken out there. We shouldn't kid ourselves. Just because this is an amateur sport, it doesn't mean all players aren't doing it. The pressures in the game are phenomenal.

"But this is more a public safety issue. Players are been given things and players are buying things, and there's a huge black market out there, as well on the Internet. Even if something is branded as herbal this or that, there's still no guarantee that they are any safer."

Quinn highlighted one example of possible confusion, with clear potential for error. Lemsip, one of the most popular flu and cold remedies, has a different formula in Britain to the one used in Ireland. The British product contains the banned stimulant phenylephrine, listed as a decongestant, whereas the Irish product does not.

"You could easily have a player coming up from the south for, say, a game against Down and he stops into a garage to buy some Lemsip to help clear a head cold or whatever. That product is fine in Ireland, but not in the North, and that's an obvious example, but there are a lot of other banned drugs as well that go under different names."

Much of the responsibility, says Quinn, rests with the players themselves, and if there is any doubt about a medicine or vitamin supplement, they should always check it out.

Managers also need to take more responsibility, and Quinn was particularly disappointed at the attendance at the last anti-doping seminar in Croke Park, which he addressed.

"I would have expected every county manager and every team doctor to be there. There were some big games on that weekend but most counties were still notable only because of their absence."