The illicit drugs policy may need to be altered to better serve the players, says North Melbourne's Shaun Higgins.

A report by News Corp on Friday said up to 11 Collingwood players tested positives for illicit drugs in hair tests, but said at least two other clubs may have even more players having tested positive.

That figure has been questioned, however, by Collingwood president Eddie McGuire.

Changes were made to the illicit drugs policy at the end of last year. Players will now be named, fined and suspended for four matches if they record a second strike.

Under the previous policy, players were not publicly named until they accrued a third strike.

"I think we're definitely on the right path. We've made some significant gains in the last couple of years," Higgins said.

"We put ourselves open to this testing. We do it for the right reasons, and that is to make sure all players are looked after, and if there's issues, that they're addressed.

"If that means the policy needs tweaking a little bit, then I'm sure we'll look into that."