Thursday's news that the CFL and CFLPA have agreed on a new performance-enhancing drug policy that will be in effect this season is highly significant, and it deserves examination in detail. The most important element here is that this policy will be enforced by the Canadian Centre for Ethics In Sport; the CFL and CFLPA have had a drug policy with regular testing done by CCES ever since 2010, but that policy was only a paper one last year thanks to Dr. Christiane Ayotte (the head of the only Canadian lab certified by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which handled the tests for the CFL/CCES program) suddenly having issues with the CFL's long-running drug policy and refusing to test CFL samples. That led to the CFL cutting its ties with the CCES and looking for an American partner, but criticisms from CCES and WADA meant no U.S. lab was willing to work with the league, so that led to no testing throughout the 2015 season.

Earlier this offseason, though, the CFL announced a new, harsher penalty for prospects, which addressed most of the CCES/WADA criticisms (no transferrable punishments from CIS to the CFL, and no punishment beyond increased testing for a first offence). Now it's come out with a harsher policy for veterans, one that seems to meet the CCES' criteria. The CCES being back on board means that there will again be testing of CFL players for performance-enhancing drugs, and that's certainly good; a paper policy with no enforcement doesn't work well for anyone.



There are also some quite positive elements of this policy, such as first-offence suspensions, public disclosure of violations once appeals have been exhausted, harsher suspensions in general (two games for a first violation, then nine, then a year-long ban, then a lifetime ban; the latter two are the same as the old policy, but a first violation was previously just increased testing and counseling, and a second one was a three-game suspension) and expanded testing (from tests equal to 35 per cent of players to tests equal to 100 per cent of players; tests are random, though, so each year will see some tested multiple times and some not tested). Those elements remove the previously-existing incentives to use until you get caught, and that should help cut down on PEDs in the CFL. However, other elements of this policy deserve further examination, particularly on if they're really what's best for the league or if they're what was dictated by the drug-testing agencies. The big one there is the paragraph about enforcing others' sanctions:

It also includes a new requirement that recognizes sanctions from Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Football League (NFL) and other World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) tested sports.

Does this mean that the CFL will enforce NFL or NCAA suspensions, preventing players like LaVon Brazill from joining the league? How will other WADA sports weigh into that; if someone tests positive in rugby or bobsled, should they be punished by the CFL for that, and will they be? Will the CFL enforce already-served suspensions from other leagues, or escalate those players to a higher level of its program? And what about suspensions from other leagues for substances that the CFL does not test for, such as marijuana? The league's new policy for prospects will ignore positive tests for substances it does not test for, so hopefully this one will too, but until the league spells it out, we don't know.

Update: The CFL has since answered the questions initially raised here. This is actually based on the February prospect policy, which also contains provisions for non-draft-eligible players. Any player who tests positive for a substance the CFL tests for (so not marijuana or other recreational drugs) or incurs a doping-program violation (by avoiding a test or violating a test rule) will be banned from the CFL for a year, but they can enter the CFL with a clean sheet after that. Fortunately, this won't affect players like Brazill who tested positive for marijuana; the CFL absolutely should not follow the NFL's prohibitions there, and it doesn't look like it's going to for the moment. However, as with the prospect policy, this may end some careers; it's providing one more place where a suspended player can't play.

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