A clipping from a school newsletter published in the 1990s after troubled footballer Ben Cousins gave a talk about the dangers of drugs has emerged on social media.
The article highlights how the retired AFL star spoke to Year 6 and 7 schoolgirls at St Mary’s Anglican Girls School about ‘how his success would not have been possible if he was involved in drugs’.
Cousins, now 39, has admitted since the downfall of his career how he began to use narcotics and other drugs in high school and continued throughout his playing days.
Clearly striking a chord with social media users, the article has gone viral since being posted online particularly for Cousins’ message: ‘If you don’t start drugs you don’t have to stop’.
A clipping of a newsletter from a Perth school (pictured) has re-emerged on social media over recent days, highlighting a talk Cousins, now 39, gave to students in the mid-1990s
Cousins has previously admitted to being addicted to cocaine and ice not only in his AFL days but also while he still at high school
Having burst onto the scene in the 1996 season the then rising star of the AFL posed for a photo with a group of schoolgirls after his talk.
‘Ben spoke to the girls about his achievements in football and emphasised that his success would not have been possible if he was involved in drugs,’ the article claims.
‘He stressed that drugs prevent young people from striving for their dreams.
‘Whilst playing junior football Ben met players who had enormous potential and who could have made it but were tragically drawn into the world of drugs.’
Cousins has previously admitted to being addicted to cocaine and ice not only in his AFL days but also while he was still at high school.
‘I’m a drug addict, just flat-out. Yeah, I was drug-f***ed,’ Cousins reveals during the 2010 documentary about him, Such Is Life.
‘As a 17, 18-year-old it’s nightclubs, it’s girls, it’s success… It’s this whole dream come true.
‘It was fast, it was good. They were good times. Alcohol wasn’t the big thing for me at the time. It was all about drugs for me.’
The fallen football star was recently released from prison (pictured) 10 months into a one-year sentence for stalking and repeatedly breaching an AVO taken out by his ex-partner
‘I’m a drug addict, just flat-out. Yeah, I was drug-f***ed,’ Cousins reveals during the 2010 documentary about him, Such Is Life. He is pictured with ex-partner Maylea Tinecheff
He was at the time described as a ‘straight-A student with a Class A narcotics habit’.
The fallen football star was recently released from prison 10 months into his one-year sentence for stalking and repeatedly breaching an AVO taken out by his ex-partner.
A shaggy-looking Cousins with a long beard and hair was reunited with his children at his parents’ home where he is staying while on bail.
His former club have offered Cousins a job working in their Community and Game Development department in an effort to help in his rehabilitation.