Ease in rules but marijuana still illegal

Ignorance of anti-doping rules and regulations is no excuse and athletes should be responsible for what they consume, says well-known physician and Chairman of the National Anti-Doping Commission Dr. Adrian Lorde.

During an interview with Barbados TODAY, Lorde said that 21-year-old United States of America sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson – who received a one-month suspension for smoking marijuana – should have known better and been more responsible for her actions.

“I think it was irresponsible of her knowing that trials were going on, regardless of what happened to her, death or whatever, she should not have used marijuana and expect it not to be in her system. The athlete is responsible for whatever is in their system. But it is not a good enough excuse to get away from (being suspended).

“Athletes are responsible for whatever is in their body, they need to know what is on the list and what is not when it is on and when it is off. Just we need to protect the rights of the clean athletes and ignorance of anti-doping rules and regulations is no excuse,” Lorde explained.

In the United States marijuana is liberalised in 19 of the 50 States including Oregon where the USA national trials were held but it is not legal in Texas where Richardson lives. Therefore, Lorde reinforced his point that rules are made to be followed.

“Rules are the rules and it is not rules in place for the United States or rules in place for athletics. There are rules in place for the whole world, for all the countries and all the sports.

“So, it is not the USA track and field or the USA Olympic and Paralympic Committee to decide or the United States anti-doping agency to decide. We, all the stakeholders in anti-doping in the world, have decided that marijuana should remain on the list,” he said.

Highly respected in his profession particularly in the area of sports medicine, Lorde explained that in addition to the allowable levels in the urine, WADA this year put marijuana, cocaine, heroin and ecstasy in a group called the Substances of Abuse which are likely to be used recreationally.

“If you admit to it and you undergo the counselling, rather than a three-month sanction you will get one month,” he stated.

“Drugs are not only put on the list because they are performance-enhancing because that is a big argument people give. If it is performance-enhancing or not there are three criteria – performance-enhancing or potential to enhance performance, harmful to your health or potential to harm your health or against what we call the spirit of sports, the spirit of fair play, cheating, breaking rules, breaking laws. Two of those three criteria must be met and marijuana made two of those three criteria,” Lorde added.

He further noted that before being lenient the suspension given to athletes for marijuana usage would be four years.

According to Lorde, WADA has been very liberal towards marijuana usage.

He said: “A few years now, maybe two, three years, they have allowed the use of medicinal marijuana CBD (Cannabidiol CBD) is allowed to be used by athletes for medical purposes. It is the THC (tetrahydrocannabinol – the main psychoactive compound in cannabis that produces the high sensation) that is prohibited at this time.

“After the London Olympics in 2012, international regulators increased the threshold for a positive test from 15 nanograms per millilitre to 150 ng/m. They explained the new threshold was an attempt to ensure that in-competition use is detected, but not used during the days and weeks before the competition. The sanction for a positive test when an athlete can establish the drug was not used to enhance performance is three months. That can be reduced to one month if the athlete completes counselling.

“It is only prohibited in competition. If you take it out of competition it is not a problem. The problem is if one takes it out of competition and it stays in your system and you are tested in competition, then that can be a problem. WADA relaxed their levels to allow for out of competition use or recreational use.”

This is part of the reason why Lorde stressed it was important for elite athletes to give their whereabouts for random testing to take place.

For instance, the National Anti-Doping Agency in Barbados can make a request to other international bodies for Barbadian elite athletes anywhere in the world to be tested.

“The elite athletes, they have to give their whereabouts to the Athlete Integrity Unit of the World Athletics. They have to give their whereabouts every three months of where they are so that they can be tested wherever they are if they are in Barbados or elsewhere during training or wherever.

“Their whereabouts have to be given every three months of every quarter to the World Athletics as well as the national anti-doping commission. Now if we in Barbados, the National Anti-Doping Commission, want to test them, we can ask if they are in the US, we could ask the United States Anti-Doping Agency to test them on our behalf.

“Or if American athletes are in Barbados training, I’m using athletes in the broad sense meaning any sportsperson, they could ask us to test them on their behalf. We have been doing testing in the Caribbean on behalf of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports in their anti-doping organisation,” Lorde said.

“We have a relationship with all the anti-doping organisations so our athletes based elsewhere can be tested by other accredited anti-doping organisations. So, within the Caribbean in Central America and South America, wherever they are in the world, we can ask similar organisations to do testing.”

(morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb)