Never saw Goulding as a player, but as a kids coach I saw him threaten a kid, get sent off by the ref, then threaten to destroy the young refs career if he reported it. Thoroughly odious man, regardless of the image he now presents on social media.

That’s like making murder legal to ease pressure on prisons.

Then at the other end of the spectrum if your clamp down harder you risk allowing another drug to come in and take its place like legal highs did eg bubble, meow meow, spice.

Yeah, I'm not sure that Goulding is someone you want as your spokesman. Besides, if you read his words, he's defending the players, not Wigan - which is the wrong way around.

Yeah people are giving stick to Goulding but he’s not the one preaching like Carney has. His point is that he doesn’t believe Carney was ‘squeaky clean’ himself (therefore a hypocrite) although he does agree with his sentiment.

I haven't wanted to comment directly on this one because when drink driving, drug use and/or violence are involved in a topic I think it can really stoke emotion inside people that have had experiences of it. I would not want to preach to someone who lost a love one to a drink/drug driver or maybe a loved one to drug abuse. Even someone who has experienced a violent assault or verbal abuse may take offence to anything said in defense. It is human nature.

However, a very good friend of mine is a Police officer with GMP, he has said on several occasions through 7 years of traffic policing, in 90% of the roadside stoppages he performs when alchohol/drugs are suspected he is still surprised when he first approaches the vehicle...he said the split is fairly even between men/women but what surprises him most is the fact that in a far more cases than we would want to believe the occupations are quite discouraging, GP's/solicitors, surgeons/politicians, teachers and even fellow Police Officers are just as frequent as your let us say, lesser jobs or even Sports personalities. So my point, although long winded is that whilst our boys should know better, and the disappoint us, they are a small fraction of what is an alarming problem for society on the whole, no matter what warnings are offered or given human beings will always cock-up and make bad decisions.

I am in no way condoning what any of the above mentioned players have done but we must as humans understand that for the years behind us and for many years ahead of us that this cycle will continue. Educating the young players on the dangers of driving whilst under the influence of either alcohol or drugs is all that can be done by the club, examples must be made. Whilst Zak and young Mullen are punished by a driving ban and a financial penalty, they must be made to understand that in both cases the end result could of been far worse with the loss of a life.

Regards all sports personalities and drug use, there is very little chance Cocaine will ever be eradicated, given its stimulant similarities to the performance enhancing workout powders/drinks that supplement companies produce (yes Musclepharm included) that they are recommended to use for training and game day, it is very addictive and is a social influencer, in most cases now within groups of socialites it is almost laughable when someone refrains from using.

Very interesting post - Im sure the mental health crisis in this country has a lot to do with more and more people turning to drink and drugs as a way of coping.

30/40 years ago drink driving was seen as socially acceptable and was common place despite the obvious dangers. Nowadays, most people find it totally unacceptable and rightly so!
However, some of those same people see some use of recreational drugs as socially acceptable. It’s not.
The use of drugs socially is why levels of most serious violent crime are soaring. Shootings in inner cities are usually down to rival organised crime groups fighting over drug turf. Burglaries, robberies, theft of or from vehicles and mostly committed by people trying to fund drug habits, be it cocaine, heroin, cannabis, Khet etc isn’t relevant. The use of drugs in society is rife but completely at the heart of most criminality nationwide. There’ll be people who agree with me and people who don’t. I don’t know how or if we will ever stop it. It’s a debate that would take far too much time to have properly on a forum like this.

Spot on pal

Give over. It’s a widespread social activity that is in the most part totally harmless. Murder isn’t.

Make it legal then (cocaine) together with heroin and sell them in pubs and clubs. Once it's settled in there then let's start selling them in schools.
Oh and bullocks to the poor saps in Columbia who should be grateful that the west needs these harmless drugs because the no marks who use them don't give a flying shoite about anything other than themselves.

Totally harmless? Really? Honestly? Jesus...

Jesus wept!!

That’s the most gob smacking post I’ve seen in a long time on here. Seriously ill educated post.

If you had experience of being on the other side of someone on a cocaine fuelled rampage trying to restrain them or trying to deal with them and seeing them go through into Acute Behavior Disorder (ABD) which is a life threatening condition and then had to perform CPR battling to keep them alive, watching as paramedics and air ambulance perform life saving treatment on the street, you would never say such a ridiculous thing.

You're right it's totally harmless. It's produced and shipped by the entirely willing who are paid handsomely so some 20 something from Wigan can't snort it up his nose.

How can you be so blissfully unaware or willfully ignorant of what these drug gangs do to the people in the area to ensure constant supply? I'll give you a hint: murder, rape, kidnap, extortion. Brutal acts of violence.

I remember hearing a story where part of this one gang blocked the highway and waited for a bus to come along which was packed. They had it drive off the road into the middle of nowhere. They killed the women, children and elderly and had the men fight to the death - if they didn't they would find their families. The winner had the "honour" of working for them to traffic drugs across the border. If he refused, they would find his family.

Totally harmless indeed. And that's assuming that the person taking it is okay on it.

Wtf are you on about? No one sells alcohol or tobacco in schools ffs. Legalise it and “the poor saps” in Columbia would be on the same footing as a tobacco farmer. And nobody except you mentioned heroin, the use of which can in no way be described as a social activity. If you know nothing about the subject perhaps it would be better if you kept quiet.

.... and what happens to those drugs gangs when it's legalised and taxed? They take a serious hit. I'm not saying it's harmless at all, but I'd rather the money go to the NHS, police, schools etc than to gangs. You could also standardise production, so that people at least know exactly what they are taking.

All of the above (if true) is purely down to the fact that cocaine production and supply is illegal. Let me ask you a question. If someone invented alcohol today do you think it would be acceptable as a legal product?

Why stop at cocaine?
You said it was harmless so why not sell it at schools then?
If you are the sole owner of knwoledge on this subject then the 2 questions should be easy to answer.
By the way if I want to pass comment on total shoite then I will even if you think you are a progressive on a subject that has wider implications than some soft lad having a good time snorting shoite whilst everyone around then and countries of supply are in total turmoil.

I imagine from that comment he or she puts it up their snout also??

Iv been lurking in the shadows of this forum for a few years but this topic is something Iv always wished people talk about publicly. I’m in my 20’s and enjoy a night out and it no secret that certain players do recreational drugs. You could ask 9/10 young people around Wigan and they will have a story about players to tell you (a certain centre especially). I’m just shocked it’s taken this long to discuss. I didn’t mind whilst we were winning but I think we now have to start taking action. Some of these ‘professionals’ are starting to take the mick. Culture or not, your a professional, act like it..

The moral hysteria from some on here over cocaine use is laughable, as is the hypocrisy. Going out and drinking ten pints is just fine, but take cocaine and you’re suddenly the scum of the earth in the eyes of some. Alcohol is by some distance the greater evil, it just happens to be legal. A report by the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs, published in The Lancet in 2010, showed that cocaine is significantly less harmful than alcohol in terms of both harm caused to users and harm caused to others.
Yes, the drug is illegal and a player taking it would break the law in doing so, but how many of the sanctimonious moral arbiters on here can honestly say they’ve never never broken the law? I’m assuming that none of you upstanding citizens have ever done so by driving over the speed limit, for example- after all, the statistics show that speeding causes far more deaths per annum in the U.K. than cocaine.
The lad has made a mistake; who hasn’t? When any ban has been served, I for one hope to see him back in a Wigan jersey and being given the second chance that everyone deserves.

So it's coke and not PED do you know that??

Another one that obviously puts it up their snout as much as possible??

If the other one you refer to is me I would just like to inform you I have never dabbled in cocaine. I just happen to believe the war was lost some time ago.

I’ve no idea whether it’s cocaine or PED’s. And, no, I don’t use cocaine- it is possible to have an informed opinion on the relative harm caused by different drugs without being a user.

Ha Ha, the same reply from two different posters, one with he or shes first post....nice one....