by JASON GONDZIOLA

Being named Quebec Student Sports Federation rookie of the year did as much to further Donal Corkum's athletic hopes as being caught for drug-use did to destroy them. Following a game against Bishop's University on March 7, the Concordia Stingers basketball player gave a urine sample that two weeks later came back positive for cocaine and marijuana. The infraction is Canada's first of the year, and the 29th from 5,000 similar tests conducted over 14 years of Canadian collegiate athletics.

In a game where the pros have an average age of 28 years, the four-year suspension could be a death knell for the 19-year-old's basketball ambitions. Corkum, however, can appeal the sentence. On June 1, Canada will adopt the new World Anti-Doping Code (WADC) in preparation for the upcoming Olympics in Athens. The new code, which aims to normalize international anti-doping regulations, is more compassionate and will see the punishment for cocaine halved from four to two years.

The new regulations are being embraced by sporting commissions the world over, but are conspicuously absent from the anti-drug policies of all four North American major pro sports leagues, especially Major League Baseball, which is notorious for doling out wrist-slaps for drug infractions. Players like Steve Howe and Darryl Strawberry received multiple cocaine-related suspensions throughout their careers, but would have received lifetime bans under the WADC for a second offence.

This lax attitude in pro sports can give student athletes the wrong message, according to Lynnell Ible, a five-year veteran of the Concordia Stingers women's rugby team.

"Basically they're saying that it's not okay if you play for free, but as soon as you start doing it professionally it's okay," she says. "Paid athletes are major role models for younger athletes. I don't think there should be a double standard."

Cash-fuelled competition

But there is, and the reasons are clear: teams and leagues don't want to lose their star players, even if they're taking illegal drugs.

"They won't say that, but it's clear in my mind that it has to do with the economics that drive all those leagues," says Brian Schecter, a Vancouver-based independent sports analyst. He added that stern measures are only taken in pro sports when the integrity of the sport itself is threatened.

"We now have a situation where athletes are treated as commodities and are manipulated and used for the entertainment of society, and I don't think that as a society that's what we want sport to be" - Paul Melia, of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport

Paul Melia, the CEO of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, a non-profit organization that promotes ethical conduct in Canadian sports, laments the ultra-competitive environment of pro sports, where players are seen as a means to the end of a big victory.

"No longer is sport being participated in for its intrinsic value," says Melia. "We now have a situation where athletes are treated as commodities and are manipulated and used for the entertainment of society, and I don't think that as a society that's what we want sport to be."

The case in Canadian collegiate athletics is different. "It's still a very pure kind of institution," says Schecter. "It has very little in the way of dollars, financial things at stake, so they can afford to be as vigilant as they want to be."

As for Corkum, his athletic career may not be over. He can appeal to reduce his four-year ban once the new rules come into play. Melia isn't able to comment specifically on this particular case, but was optimistic about the appeal process in general.

"We will be dealing with those on a case by case basis," he says. "I don't think that the process will be particularly onerous."