Cocaine and Ecstasy Are Becoming Popular in the NHL

According to a new piece in The Athletic, off of the ice, NHL players are really starting to enjoy powder.

Based on conversations with dozens of NHL players, coaches, executives, agents, scouts and others associated with pro hockey, The Athletic found that players within the league are increasingly choosing recreational drugs like cocaine and molly (a pill form of ecstasy) for their postgame partying.

“It’s really the secret that everybody knows,” a recently retired NHL player told the publication.

While many reported that marijuana use is still common within the league and drinking is commonplace, the use of painkillers has shifted and is no longer as popular as it once was.

Former NHL player Dan Carcillo, who now works as a player advocate, said the use of cocaine and molly is surging because of the “euphoric-type feeling they create.”

“It mimics that feeling when we get on the ice, when our hearts are racing and there’s blood coursing through our veins,” Carcillo told The Athletic. “It’s that feel-good drug.”

In a recent ESPN poll of NHL players, 10 percent said yes, 58 percent said no and 32 percent said they didn’t know when asked: “Does the NHL have a cocaine problem?”

In the same poll, 24 percent said it was good the NHL didn’t penalize players for recreational drug use. Fourteen percent said it was bad and 62 percent said they were indifferent to the league’s recreational drugs policy.

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