cannabisnews.com: No Marijuana for The Snowboarders

No Marijuana for The Snowboarders
Posted by FoM on January 29, 2002 at 20:06:46 PT
By Franco Ordoñez, Newsweek Web Exclusive
Source: Newsweek
Snowboarding quickly carved itself a spot in Olympic history during its first run at the Nagano games in 1998. It wasn’t the coming out party the sport had hoped for. Wanting to be seen as a worthy Olympic addition, snowboarders hoped to shed some of their bad-boy image as the outlaws of the mountains. But that image was only enhanced after Canadian Ross Rebagliati, the giant slalom gold medalist, was stripped of his award after testing positive for marijuana.
Olympic traditionalists cried “I told you so,” but many snowboarders felt they were mislead. ”Olympic officials didn’t really tell anyone they were testing for marijuana,” says American snowboarder Ross Powers, the halfpipe bronze medalist in Nagano. “It was all up in the air.” Others questioned the significance of the ruling; marijuana isn’t exactly known for increasing speed and agility. Rebagliati claimed he did not smoke any pot, but admitted he was around it during a going-away party. The Canadian Olympic Association appealed the International Olympic Committee’s decision and an arbitration panel was formed. Three-days later, with the games still going on, the panel overruled the IOC concluding that the IOC and the International Ski Federation (FIS) were not explicit enough about marijuana’s status as a banned substance. Rebagliati, who had been keeping the award hidden in his jacket pocket, pulled out the medal and hung it from his neck once again. “I won the gold medal twice,” Rebagliati proudly said at a news conference after his medal was reinstated. The IOC and the FIS are now on the same page. Everyone knows what will be tested and what is prohibited. “The difference is that the federations have all agreed that all of their prohibited substances are the same as in the Olympic Anti-Doping code,” says Dr. Doug Rollins, doping control medical director of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. “There will be no more discrepancies,” says FIS secretary general Sarah Lewis. Marijuana is not a performance enhancing drug, but it is listed as a prohibited substance in the Anti-Doping code and also is an “expedient which is potentially harmful to an athletes’ health.” Under the new guidelines, an athlete will test positive for marijuana if the concentration of carboxy-THC in their urine is greater than 15 nanograms per milliliter, standards based on ones used by the American military that do take into account the possibility of passive inhalation, says IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch. “You can’t reach this amount from secondhand smoking,” he says. “I assure you of that.” Powers, who is a favorite to medal again next month in Salt Lake, isn’t taking any chances after seeing how close Rebagliati was to losing the gold. “If someone was smoking in front of me,” he says, “I’d definitely step away from them.” He doesn’t smoke marijuana, but acknowledges that occasional use of the drug is common in the sport. Many athletes simply quit smoking before competitions. “To go to something like the Olympics, and take a few months off from doing something like that, I’m sure is fine with them,” Powers says. According to Rollins, athletes would have to lay off pot for weeks to ensure a negative result, though he doesn’t recommend taking a chance as many of these tests are random and athletes have no idea when they may be examined. “If you were to smoke one marijuana cigarette and have never smoked one before, you could be positive for 24 to 48 hours,” he says. “If you were a regular user of marijuana, you could be positive for a week to 10 days, or even possibly two weeks.” The IOC expects to test the urine of at least 80 percent of the approximate 2,500 athletes before they arrive in Salt Lake City. For Powers, its no big deal. “Whatever,” he says. “After doing this a couple of times, you pretty much know how it is. You fill out the paper work, go to the bathroom in front of a guy. And then you’re done.” He says he’s more concerned about testing positive for common over-the-counter drugs than marijuana. “No one does anything,” he says. “You can’t even take cold medicine. Everyone is mellow on that right before the Olympics, because they do not want to fail for anything stupid.” Complete Title: Dude!!!! - IOC Makes It Clear This Time: No Marijuana for The Snowboarders Source: Newsweek (US)Author: Franco Ordoñez, Newsweek Web ExclusivePublished: January 29, 2002 Copyright: 2002 Newsweek, Inc.Contact: letters newsweek.comWebsite: http://www.msnbc.com/news/NW-front_Front.aspRelated Articles & Web Site:International Olympic Committeehttp://www.olympic.org/Study Criticizes IOC in Drug Fighthttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6982.shtmlRemove Pot From Banned List, Says Doctor http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6981.shtmlWhere There's Smoke... http://cannabisnews.com/news/4/thread4121.shtml
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on February 02, 2002 at 08:55:21 PT
News Brief from The Canadian Press
U.S. officials ban gold medallist Rebagliati for past brush with marijuana

Canadian Press
Friday, February 01, 2002

VANCOUVER (CP) - U.S. officials don't want Olympic snowboard goal medallist Ross Rebagliati to go to Salt Lake City to watch the Winter Olympics later this month.

They have decided not to let Rebagliati cross the border for the same reason he briefly lost his medal at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan - marijuana. Rebagliati told BCTV-Global on Friday that American officials have told him he can't enter the U.S. because he admitted using pot in the past.

But he can apply for a special permit which would allow him to enter the country.

Rebagliati won gold in the giant slalom event at the Nagano games, the first time snowboarding was included in the Olympics.

But he was stripped of the medal when traces of marijuana were found in his system.

His medal - which he never actually surrendered - was restored after he successfully argued he had not used marijuana himself but might have inadvertently inhaled some second-hand pot smoke during a party.

Rebagliati has since retired from snowboard competition.

Comment #4 posted by CorvallisEric on January 30, 2002 at 05:36:46 PT
re: i420
i believe the reason for the 15 nanogram cut-off is that the human body produces the chemicals that show a person positive. If the cut-off was zero everyone would fail.
I sort-of disagree based on semi-educated hunches. Hopefully someone who really knows will comment.
I suspect you are thinking of endogenous cannabinoids (human produced, like anandamide) which affect the same receptors as Cannabis-sourced cannabinoids like THC. These two groups (endogenous vs cannabis) and their respective metabolites have different chemical structures and should not confuse drug tests - at least the GC/MS (the more precise test used to confirm a positive result). If you test positive at "zero" cut-off, it is the result of some exposure to cannabis, whether second-hand smoke or hemp foods.
I put "zero" in quotes because:
1 - It's almost impossible to reduce the level of any environmental substance to zero.
2 - It is also very difficult to detect almost-zero amounts of anything, though we are getting better at this all the time. Just nit-picking.
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Comment #3 posted by i420 on January 30, 2002 at 04:44:17 PT
Thr real reason...
Under the new guidelines, an athlete will test positive for marijuana if the concentration of carboxy-THC in their
urine is greater than 15 nanograms per milliliter, standards based on ones used by the American military that do
take into account the possibility of passive inhalation, says IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch. “You can’t
reach this amount from secondhand smoking,” he says. “I assure you of that.”
i believe the reason for the 15 nanogram cut-off is that the human body produces the chemicals that show a person positive. If the cut-off was zero everyone would fail.
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Comment #2 posted by Elfman_420 on January 29, 2002 at 20:37:00 PT
At least there doesn't <i>seem</i> to be hy
But is there?“No one does anything,” he says. “You can’t even take cold medicine. Everyone is mellow on that right before the Olympics, because they do not want to fail for anything stupid.”Though, I think that athletes should only be tested for performance enhancing drugs, at least there doesn't seem to be any hypocracy here. I only have two problems here. One is that most other drugs come out of your system quickly, and cannabis is one of the few substances that can be detected a long time after. The other is that I am curious whether athletes can or do drink alcohol or smoke tobacco in the days before events since they wouldn't test positive the next day for alcohol, and I'm sure they don't test for tobacco.Though, I highly doubt many of the competitors smoke tobacco. I'll bet more of them smoke cannabis, which says something.
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Comment #1 posted by p4me on January 29, 2002 at 20:33:34 PT
Image that
I just cannot see MJ as a performance enhansing herbal remedy. That is unless they have a pie eating contest at the Olympics.VAAI and always hurl on the Schedule One Lie.
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