AFL players used illicit drugs such as ecstasy "from time to time", the league's football operations manager Adrian Anderson has said.

But Anderson refused to say whether former Carlton player Laurence Angwin was right or wrong when claiming illicit drug use was commonplace within the AFL.

With the league already embroiled in a debate over players using caffeine, Angwin claimed in The Bulletin magazine recreational drug use was rife among AFL players.

He said three other Carlton players were taking ecstasy along with he and teammate Karl Norman the night before the duo tested positive to the drug last year.

Angwin was sacked by the club, while Norman was fined and suspended.

"I believe that illicit drugs are used in society and they are used from time to time in football," Anderson told reporters in Adelaide.

"It is an issue in society, the use of these drugs, and footballers are part of society and the use of these drugs can happen in football like it happens anywhere else."

Carlton coach Denis Pagan slammed Angwin's claim that three higher-profile Blues were involved in illicit drug-taking, saying the allegations were unfounded and questioning his credibility.

But Anderson, in a somewhat farcical media conference outside the Adelaide Crows' headquarters, refused to directly answer questions about Angwin's claims or the wider issue of illicit drug use within the AFL.

"We have introduced a new illicit drugs policy this year and we're testing for illicit drugs more than we ever have before," he said in a stock line repeated in some variation 13 times in answer to reporters' questions.

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