Gilles Lupien insists that the three Major Junior leagues - which form the primary feeder system for the NHL - should cut back their schedules and reduce travel time.
Lupien first made headlines December 8, with allegations that roughly half of the players in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League are drug users.
He told the Montreal newspaper La Presse that players take drugs to help them sleep during long bus rides or boost their energy before games. La Presse reported that the most common substances include ephedrine, creatine, amphetamines, marijuana and various relaxants.
In response, the QMJHL announced that it will resume player drug tests.
But Lupien continued his campaign in the Toronto Globe and Mail, insisting that drug use is only a symptom of a larger problem: Junior hockey is simply not taking care of its teenagers.
"I think the whole Canadian Hockey League should be restructured, but don't ask those people. ..... It's impossible, because there is money involved," he told the Globe. "But if you saw your neighbour's kid come home at 4 in the morning three nights of the week, do you think he would be doing well in school? So why is a hockey player different?"
He insists that the Canadian Hockey League (an umbrella group for the QMJHL, the Western Hockey League and Ontario Hockey League) should order a shorter schedule of games and limits on travel.
Reaction, as one might expect, has been mixed. Officials in Ontario and western Canada insists that drug use is not a problem in the OHL or WHL. The Western Hockey League is infamous for its grueling marathon bus rides. But league commisioner Ron Robison confidently dismisses the suggestion of drug use.
"Our players are conditioned quite well to travel," Robison tells the Regina Leader-Post. "They're not subjecting themselves to any medication to assist them in that regard."
This not the first time the Canadian junior hockey system has been taken to task. in her 1998 book, Crossing the Line: Violence and Sexual Assault in Canada's National Sport, Laura Robinson exposed violence, hazing, sexual assault and other issues plaguing the subculture of junior hockey.
Robinson's book was a condemnation of a system in which teams use boys for profit. She suggested that players are powerless to challenge the system, because their future depends on the good favor of team management.
