cannabisnews.com: Olympics-Remove Pot From Banned List, Says Doctor 





Olympics-Remove Pot From Banned List, Says Doctor 
Posted by FoM on September 09, 2000 at 08:51:03 PT
By Paul Holmes 
Source: Reuters
 Australia's team doctor was quoted on Saturday as saying ``recreational drugs'' such as marijuana should be dropped from the Olympics blacklist of banned substances. Dr Brian Sando, who is also chariman of the Australian Sports Drug Agency, told the Sydney Morning Herald that while narcotics were a major social problem, most of them did nothing to enhance performance in sport and were out of place on the list. 
His comments appeared likely to vex Olympics organisers ahead of the Sydney Games, set to open next Friday amid high hopes on the International Olympic Committee that a tough new drugs-testing regime will make them squeaky clean. Mike Tancred, media director for the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), said Sando would not be available for interview on his published remarks. He said AOC chief John Coates would comment later in the day. Sando, the Australian team doctor for 20 years, said his views on recreational drugs and the blacklist were personal and not those of the AOC. ``Whilst narcotics are a major problem and we all would want those eradicated from society, to put them on the list for performance-enhancing agents to me seems wrong,'' Sando said. ``I have problems with marijuana being on. I am opposed to tobacco and the use of social drugs but they are not performance-enhancing agents so they shouldn't be on the sports banned list. I think that's a social issue not a sport issue.'' Unlike drugs such as heroin, cocaine was a stimulant and should remain banned, Sando said. Pot An Issue At Nagano:Marijuana became an issue at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, when Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati tested positive for the drug and was stripped of his gold medal. His victory was reinstated on appeal after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that marijuana was not on the IOC list of banned substances. The IOC subsequently amended its provisions to ban soft drugs use at the Sydney Games on the grounds that Olympic athletes should be held to a higher standard than society in general. U.S. Olympic double gold and silver medallist swimmer Gary Hall was suspended for three months in 1998 after testing positive for marijuana at a meeting in Phoenix, Arizona. Swimming's world governing body, FINA, relaxed its blanket ban on marijuana use last year. It had decreed it a prohibited substance at all times, but ruled that sanctions would be imposed on athletes only if they tested positive for the drug in competition. Sydney, Sept 9, 2000 (Reuters) Copyright © 2000 Reuters Limited. Related Articles:U.S. Report Will Criticize I.O.C. on Drugshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6978.shtmlDrug Czar Ruffles IOC Feathers http://cannabisnews.com/news/4/thread4016.shtmlDrug Czar Changes Tune On IOC Testing http://cannabisnews.com/news/3/thread3855.shtml 
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