Surely the answer to this is simple.....
The RFL provides a list of products that are acceptable and approved by UK anti doping agency. Any player using anything other than those approved products runs the risk of being banned.
The problem here, apart from the conspiracy to keep it all quiet, was that the player received a product containing a banned substance. These people are not scientists. I know that asprin and parcentemol have the same effect but what they are I have no idea... if I could take one, I could take the other. Gleeson reckons he was okayed to take it by a doctor...through Sean Long... but even doctors screw up and are not impartial when it comes to club loyalty. Let's close it all down... stop the confusion, stop leaving it to players, club doctors, clubs, mates of players.... have a list of products and be done with it.
Oh and a life ban to anyone named LONG.... his dad did a runner for this kind of activity long ago..... enough said.
It isn't that simple.
This substance isn't prohibited - provided it isn't taken within 12 hours of a game, on in the case of an athlete, 12 hours before a race.
Also if Gleeson had been told the substance was safe from a person other than Long, it could be used as a defence.