Education and Training - Further information
Please note that all the information that you are reading is just that; information. Sporting Chance has no opinion or judgement of those who use alcohol, drugs or gamble. We are not ‘anti’ alcohol, drugs or gambling, but have experience of their negative effects, specifically in the lives and careers of footballers. Our aim is to educate on how alcohol, other drugs and gambling effect the brain, behaviour, body and performance. We will explore lifestyle choices and risks facing a young professional footballer. We hope that you can then make more informed choices in relation to yourselves, career and the use of these substances.
Other drugs:
All illegal drugs and are naturally banned within football. We strongly suggest that you look at
www.thefa.com to gain further insight into the FA regulations and doping testing policy.
Remember that alcohol is a drug and while many footballers in our experience would categorically state that they would never touch illegal or performance enhancing drugs we know that the ability to make sound judgements and decisions is massively impaired by the use of alcohol. Many of our clients have found this to be true and their profile and career has suffered as a result.
In this section we will examine marijuana, ecstasy and cocaine. We know that these are the drugs which are mainly used within the 16-18 year old age group and in our experience of dealing with footballers are those most prevalently used.
Marijuana:
This is the most widely used illegal drug in the UK and
is a naturally occurring drug from the cannabis plant. It is usually smoked, through a joint or a pipe and more occasionally eaten.
Marijuana and the brain:
Just like alcohol, this is a sedative and the messages are transmitted more slowly through the areas of the brain as use increases. THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is the active compound which creates the ‘stoned’ effect which results in similar behaviours.
Marijuana and behaviour:
As with all drugs we have an individual response. However there are certain things which we can see in the behaviour of the marijuana user:
- A ‘chilled out’ feeling. People appear more relaxed and happy. While they seem this way outwardly, clients have suffered from feelings of paranoia and anxiousness.
- Some become giggly and talkative while others become more withdrawn and quiet.
- Light hallucinations and shift in perception.
- Reduced motivation to train and perform. Engagement with everyday activities and relationships deteriorates.
Marijuana, the footballers’ body and performance:
- Weight gain is common through the craving of sugary foods and a week after smoking cannabis only 60-70% of the THC has left the body because it is stored in the body fat.
- It takes about 4-6 weeks before THC is undetectable in the blood. On the other hand, the psychoactive effects are gone after a couple of hours.
- Sleepy eyes and poorer vision. Discoloration of the white of the eye to somewhat pink because of dilation of the vessels in the conjunctiva of the eye.
- Dehydration will lead to cramps, muscle strains and muscle pulls. If you are drinking the dehydration can lead to loss of appetite and reduced blood sugar levels with resultant muscle wasting, fatigue and reduced performance.
Ecstasy:
MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine) is a synthetic, psychoactive drug chemically similar to the stimulant methamphetamine and the hallucinogen mescaline. MDMA is an illegal drug that acts as both a stimulant and psychedelic, producing an energizing effect, as well as distortions in time and perception and enhanced enjoyment from tactile experiences.
Ecstasy and the brain:
- MDMA exerts its primary effects in the brain on neurons that use the chemical serotonin to communicate with other neurons. The serotonin system plays an important role in regulating mood, aggression, sexual activity, sleep, and sensitivity to pain and the use of MDMA disrupts this system.
- Users of MDMA perform more poorly than nonusers on certain types of cognitive or memory tasks.
Ecstasy and behaviour:
- In the short term users feel energised and ‘loved up.’ A strange mix of being stimulated, but as the central nervous system is affected and numbness around the neck, face and jaw is common.
- Using MDMA causes confusion, depression, sleep problems, drug craving, and severe anxiety. These problems can occur during and sometimes days or weeks after taking MDMA.
Ecstasy, the footballers’ body and performance:
- In high doses, MDMA can interfere with the body’s ability to regulate temperature. On rare but unpredictable occasions, this can lead to a sharp increase in body temperature (hyperthermia), resulting in liver, kidney, and cardiovascular system failure, and death.
- Because MDMA can interfere with its own metabolism (breakdown within the body), potentially harmful levels can be reached by repeated drug use within short intervals. MDMA users tend to build up a tolerance to the drug, so increased dosage leads to increased harm.
- Users of MDMA face many of the same risks as users of other stimulants such as cocaine and amphetamines. These include increases in heart rate and blood pressure, a special risk for people with circulatory problems or heart disease, and other symptoms such as muscle tension, involuntary teeth clenching, nausea, blurred vision, faintness, and chills or sweating.
Cocaine:
Cocaine is a powerfully addictive stimulant drug. The powdered, hydrochloride salt form of cocaine can be snorted or dissolved in water and injected. Crack is cocaine that has not been neutralized by an acid to make the hydrochloride salt. This form of cocaine comes in a rock crystal that can be heated and its vapours smoked. The term "crack" refers to the crackling sound heard when it is heated.
Cocaine and the brain:
- Cocaine is a strong central nervous system stimulant that interferes with the re-absorption process of dopamine, a chemical messenger associated with pleasure and movement. The build-up of dopamine causes continuous stimulation of receiving neurons, which is associated with the euphoria commonly reported by cocaine abusers.
- As use increase in regularity and quantity the balance of dopamine and other brain chemistry is affected.
Cocaine and behaviour:
- Some users of cocaine report feelings of restlessness, irritability, and anxiety. A tolerance to the "high" may develop—many addicts report that they seek but fail to achieve as much pleasure as they did from their first exposure.
- Some will use addictively and increase their doses to intensify and prolong the euphoric effects. While tolerance to the high can occur, users can also become more sensitive to cocaine's anaesthetic and convulsant effects without increasing the dose taken. This increased sensitivity may explain some deaths occurring after apparently low doses of cocaine.
- Use of cocaine in a binge, during which the drug is taken repeatedly and at increasingly high doses, may lead to a state of increasing irritability, restlessness, and paranoia. This can result in a period of full-blown paranoid psychosis, in which the user loses touch with reality and experiences auditory hallucinations.
Cocaine, the footballers’ body and performance:
- Cocaine use disturbs in heart rhythm and can cause heart attacks. Chest pain and respiratory failure, strokes, seizures and headaches, and gastrointestinal complications such as abdominal pain and nausea are other negative effects.
- Cocaine has a tendency to decrease appetite and many chronic users can become malnourished.
- Using cocaine will reduce your strength and speed. Bingeing in particular decreases serum testosterone levels which mean lower levels of aggression, effort, lean muscle mass, muscle recovery and overall athletic performance.
- Cocaine decreases the size of your blood vessels. This makes your heart beat faster, and raises your blood pressure. Less blood and oxygen is able to reach your organs so performance and recovery after exercise is affected.
- Cocaine also raises your body temperature, which means that your endurance suffers.
- Snorting cocaine into your nose or rubbing cocaine on body areas makes the area constrict (get smaller). The areas may become damaged and scarred. In serious cases the cartilage that separates the two sides of your nose may bleed, or a hole may develop.