Perry Lefko

Perry Lefko keeps you connected to all the news in the CFL on Sportsnet.ca.

The CFL's tentative labour deal finally contains a drug-policy.

For years the Canadian Football League has talked about wanting to move out of the stone ages and devise a drug policy, but failed to do, serving itself up a lightning rod for controversy.

Now it appears they are doing something about it.

The CFL announced on Wednesday that its Player Relations Committee and the Players Association have reached a tentative deal on the terms of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The agreement is subject to ratification votes by the Players and CFL Board of Governors, which will be conducted in advance of the regular-season kickoff on July 1. That quietly put aside any thought of a strike or lockout, thereby putting aside any talk of a shutdown. You can bank on a ratification.

But the statement also said the CBA contains a drug-testing policy, though the details will not be released until the Agreement has been ratified.

What this means is that the league can now call itself progressive by following the majority of others league by adopting some form of a drug policy.

It has been a bone of contention by critics who took aim at the CFL for dragging its cleets on the issue.

In 2006, when the Toronto Argonauts signed running back Ricky Williams, who had been suspended by the National Football League for his fourth substance abuse violation, Dick Pound, then with the World Anti-Doping Agency, let loose with unbridled criticism.

"Here you've got a league that, for God knows how many years, has sort of put its head in the sand and said, 'we do not have a problem in football,'" he said in an interview with CTV. "And then of course you act as a refuge for players that get offside in the United States, come up here and play during their suspension time."

He didn't mention Williams' name, but the inference was quite clear. After the season, the CFL adopted a rule that players under suspension from other leagues couldn't play in it's league.

But that didn't address the annoying issue of a drug policy. Former CFL commissioner Tom Wright, who was announced as director of Canadian operations on Tuesday of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, had been trying for years during his four-year term to push through some form of a drug policy. He didn't make any headway. But before him, Mike Lysko tried his best.

The deep-thinkers of the CFL had to have known that they couldn't allow this type of thing to continue if they wanted their brand to be taken seriously. Some sort of drug policy needed to be in place, regardless of the cost.

Now the one thing that should be noted is that this policy will likely be more of a guide than a warning policy with stiff penalties. Similar to any drug policy in sports, there has to be some type of warning system in place. Don't expect this to be like the Olympics, where an athlete nailed for a drug violation is immediately slapped with a two-year suspension.

It would seem reasonable that for the owners and players to agree on a policy, it needs to be brought in slowly to give all sides a chance to properly understand it - and that includes a system to educate the players on what is and isn't legal.

It would be naïve to think football players don't use recreational drugs such as marijuana, which may or may not be construed as performance enhancing. Earlier this month, Saskatchewan Roughriders defensive back Tad Kornegay was quoted in a Wall Street Journal story as suggesting at least half of his teammates are open about smoking pot.

"They say they do it for stress, and because they feel like they don't hurt as bad," he was quoted as saying. "Nobody comes to practice high."

Kornegay later clarified those statements to suggest he wasn't talking specifically about the Roughriders.

But you could make the claim that he wasn't being completely out of line suggesting players smoke pot.

Now the CFL will address that drug and presumably others. To think a bunch of players will be nailed right away for substance abuse is ridiculous. And the likelihood is any players that test positive will be given a warning in the strictest of confidence.

That's the way it should be.

The CFL has taken a bold step in finally becoming a league with a drug policy. This is the one salient issue that needed to be addressed with a new CBA.