GARETH HOCK’S positive drugs test for cocaine is news that should be treated with disappointment rather than disgust.

There are further steps in the process to go through before any further judgement is made, but the rules prohibiting drug taking in rugby league are very stringent and the penalties are potentially draconian.

It is a sad tale, as Hock, the Wigan and England forward, is a very gifted player who could be one of the really great players of this era with the potential to offer the England team some formidable options for the series later this year, against Australia and New Zealand.

But he can’t say he hasn’t been warned. It is less than six months since Bath and England rugby union player Matt Stevens saw his career come to an abrupt halt for taking cocaine.

And in the fortnight before Hock’s drug test, Bath lost another three players who quit after refusing drug tests in the aftermath of allegations arising from an end-of-season party.

The rules which forbid athletes from taking drugs are designed to punish those who take drugs to get an artificial competitive advantage over those who do not use drugs.

But cocaine is a performance de-hancing drug – it does not help an athlete to win it actually makes it harder for him to do so.

It is a social drug, its widespread use is lamentable but growing, and it is not a problem confined to the world of professional sport.

But the question of how sport should address the issue is not an easy one to answer.

Certainly governing bodies and clubs should not point to the extremely small number of positive tests and suggest that there isn’t a problem.

Educating players from the moment they enter the world of elite sport as teenagers already goes on, but perhaps not enough happens once players are older.

After all, we are talking about young men in their twenties, many of whom have been cosseted away from a lot of life’s realities by becoming a professional sportsmen straight from school.

Gareth Hock is from a very ordinary background in Wigan who made his debut for his home-town club at 19.

If his career is put at peril as a result of taking cocaine – should that be proven to be the case – he will not be in the same position as a much better-paid footballer or tennis player or golfer, and the effects of the penalty will be all the more damaging for him.