cousins will not be coming back

All the talk of Ben Cousins returning to top grade AFL is nonesense and ignores the known facts. Drug use from cocacola, coffee, alcohol to hard substances, damages the chemical and electrical makeup of the human body systems permanently. Pop stars and other lesser individuals can get away with drug abuse as their artistic output can be massaged to lead people to believe that the same performance is being delivered. Not so with elite athletes who must perform without assistance. Drug use is encouraged from an early age in the sale of soft drinks, pick me ups, coffee and alcohol. Caffeine and alcohol are used to get people through the last 2 hrs of a day or a game as an example, the "lift" being well advertised. It is not a big step for people doing physical or stressfull work or activity to look for a bigger 'lift' to get them through. The combination of low level residual stamina, boosted by caffeine etc and followed up by a celebratory drink after the game or workday is a formula for disaster as many know. The damage that Cousins has done to himself will become obvious to him over a period of time as symptoms of stress and anxiety repeat at intervals of time. Those intervals will get longer but will remain ever present as a cap/limit to his performance. His ability to take on stress has gone and that is a vital component of an elite athlete. Public statements are stressfull so do not expect much talk from him in the near future. Rather than the press talking about his return to football, they should be pointing out the consequences of drug abuse which are permanent.