She's Denied An Olympic Berth Because Of Marijuana Use

Sha'Carri Richardson won the 100 meter race at the U.S. Olympic Trials, and she won it in convincing fashion. But she will not be able to compete in that event in the Olympics because she tested positive for THC (the active ingredient in marijuana). 

I think this is unjust. I understand and support banning athletes who use performance-enhancing drugs. Using drugs to enhance a performance is cheating. But marijuana is NOT a performance-enhancing drug, and its use should not be used to deny any athlete an honor they have achieved. 

The following is part of an article on this at Yahoo Sports:

Sha’Carri Richardson, the 21-year-old sprinter expected to star at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, has been suspended and barred from running her signature race in Tokyo after testing positive for marijuana.

The drug has been decriminalized in most U.S. states, including in Oregon, where Richardson's positive test occurred. Many athletes use it for reasons both medicinal and recreational. The NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL no longer suspend players for it.

And yet, “all natural and synthetic cannabinoids,” including marijuana, remain prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency, or WADA, the International Olympic Committee-affiliated body that regulates drug use in global sport.

WADA deems THC, the primary psychoactive compound of marijuana, a “substance of abuse” on its 2021 prohibited list. All cannabis-based products except for cannabidiol, or CBD, are banned “in-competition.” That means that if THC is found in an athlete’s system on the day of an event, that athlete is subject to punishment.

Discussion over marijuana's inclusion on WADA's list of banned substances dates back two decades.

“People were worried about sport appearing to thumb its nose at criminal law," Dick Pound, the founder and first president of WADA, told Yahoo Sports on Friday.

So WADA lumped marijuana in with hard drugs like cocaine and heroin. And, said Pound, “it just sort of stayed there."

For a substance to make WADA’s prohibited list, it must satisfy at least two of the following three criteria, WADA says:

It represents an actual or potential health risk to the athlete;

It has the potential to enhance or enhances sport performance;

It violates the spirit of sport . . .

Many scientists would push back on the stance that marijuana both “poses a health risk to athletes” and “has the potential to enhance performance.”

A 2018 paper co-authored by Alan Vernec, WADA’s medical director, concluded that "there is no evidence for cannabis use as a performance-enhancing drug."

Oliver Catlin, the son of anti-doping pioneer Don Catlin and co-founder of the Banned Substances Control Group, told Yahoo Sports: “I am not aware of any potential for marijuana to be performance enhancing or to be used as a masking agent.”

Dennis Jensen, an associate professor of kinesiology and physical education at McGill University, told Yahoo Sports the limited evidence that exists suggests that, if anything, marijuana decreases athletic performance. . . .

Why does marijuana remain on WADA’s prohibited substance list if it doesn’t appear to enhance performance beyond limiting pain and reducing anxiety? Pound, the WADA founder, and Catlin, the American anti-doping expert, argue that it shouldn’t be.

Catlin estimates the cash-strapped anti-doping industry squanders $1.3 million per year on marijuana-related cases.

“I would rather see that money spent on pursuing doping agents that can impact performance than on a drug that seems to be more about image management,” Catlin said.

The circumstances of Richardson’s case make her potential punishment especially harsh. The confident, charismatic sprinter had been hailed as a medal favorite in Tokyo and a potential breakout star. Her showdown with Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in the 100 meters final would be track and field’s most anticipated race of the Olympics.

Now that matchup is in doubt, an outcome that’s bad not only for Richardson but also for the sport.

Were Pound still active in WADA, he says he would push to remove marijuana from the banned list over the next five-to-10 years.

Said Pound: “We're in the business of preventing performance enhancement in sport, not getting involved in what may be medical conditions that really don't have anything to do with sport.”