Removing the cannabis of doping products?

Photo: Tao-Chuan Yeh Agence France-Presse
The threshold accepted for cannabis in competition had been relaxed after the case of the skateboarder, canadian Ross Rebagliati in 1998.

Canada’s elite athletes smoke, eat, and invest in marijuana. And that to say of a poff, before arriving at the start of a competition ?

The canadian government is considering legalizing cannabis for recreational use by July 1, 2018. It is already legal for personal use and recreational purposes in some us States.

Cannabis, hashish, marijuana and the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are on the prohibited list of the world anti-doping Agency (WADA), but only in competition.

When the laboratories receive samples of urine, out of competition, they do not test for these substances, according to the canadian Centre for ethics in sport (CCES).

The AMA has also relaxed the threshold in the competition in 2013 to allow 150 nanograms per milliliter of urine instead of 15.

This change is significant given that canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati was nearly stripped of his olympic gold medal in 1998 with a rate of 17.8 ng/ml.

Photo: The canadian Press

He had then explained that he had inhaled second-hand smoke a joint. Rebagliati had recovered his medal because marijuana was not a banned substance by the international olympic Committee.

An informal survey of canadian athletes who are planning to participate in the olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, next February, has given rise to a wide range of opinions, ranging from keeping marijuana on the list of banned products to remove it when it becomes legal in the country.

“I think it is rather apparent that this is not dangerous for you, and this is certainly not a substance to enhance performance, at least in the sports that I practice,” said the alpine skier Dustin Cook. “So yes, I think we should remove it from the list of prohibited products when it becomes legal. “

The snowboarder Spencer O’brien is of the same opinion. “Personally, I don’t smoke grass, but I believe that this is not a product stimulating the performance, she said. I don’t see any aspect that would give someone an advantage in competition. “

The bobeuse Kaillie Humphries says she has never tried cannabis or hashish and thinks she is ” the only athlete in the world “, but she knows teammates who smoke and put it in the food as an aid to sleep during the workout.

“You raised the weight to 18 h, and you’re stimulated because you’ve had a big session. You can’t sleep before two, three or four o’clock in the morning “, has described the olympic gold medalist. “A lot of athletes use it to recover. This is not something that improves the performance. “

Athletes tend to be fanatical about everything that goes into their body. Smoking a joint seems to be ridiculous for some. “You don’t want to swallow something that will burn you throat,” said the specialist of ski cross Georgia Simmerling.

Social perceptions and policies around marijuana and cannabis are changing, because they are used to treat pain and certain medical conditions.

The position of the CCES is that marijuana is not a drug to improve performance, said president and ceo Paul Melia. But the signatory countries of the code of the world anti-doping Agency are not all of this opinion, he noted.