Two drug arrests on two continents makes me not sure if I should be proud to be American or long for Australia’s innocence. It also points out the fact that when our former stars screw up, they give it 110% where in other countries the full commitment to debauchery is not being made.

Over the weekend, former first round draft pick of the then-Los Angeles Raiders, Todd Todd Marinovich was arrested with a gram of powdered methamphetamine. Honestly, I don’t think there has been much hubbub about it all; it really is page 5 news. Around the same time, former Australian Rugby League star Andrew Johns was arrested with a single tablet of ecstasy. In Australia, this is front page news.

Maybe it’s being from a culture where Lawrence Taylor was a huge cokehead and we still see him in good light; Daryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden will probably get unlimited chances to turn their lives around. But Andrew Johns is going to be potentially completely alienated from his sport because of a history with ecstasy; read this quote with Michael Irvin in mind and you might see how ridiculously trivial drug use has become in our country:

The Australian Rugby Union immediately ruled out any possibility of Johns working with the Wallabies at the World Cup in France. His position as a presenter at the Dally M awards next Tuesday is also in jeopardy.

News Limited, for which Johns works as a columnist, and Channel Nine want to discuss the incident with him. “We are awaiting the details and a chance to talk to him before forming a view as to what impact it has on his current arrangements with News Limited,” a spokesman for the company said.

I do have to argue that even if this was John freaking Elway getting caught with an ecstacy tablet in a Denver elementary school, it would be treated with so much less severity… you know this to be true.

• Todd Marinovich pleads not guilty after another SoCal drug arrest (AP)
• I have used drugs for years (League HQ)