Marijuana and sports: Canada’s legalisation of pot presents countless conundrums for international athletic community
Marijuana is now legal in Canada, which presents some challenges for its pro athletes, who compete all over the world
Canada’s historic step to legalise marijuana for recreational use has further supercharged the spotlight on pot all over the world. Recreational marijuana is legal in nine American states, and a handful of countries have installed various forms of legalisation including South Africa, Uruguay and Georgia. When it comes to the global sporting world and its athletes, things are about to get incredibly tricky.
Multiple international athletic agencies have begun a delicate dance and courtship with the plant, which has some proven medical benefits, the most notable being pain management possibly superior to opioids.
Dozens of athletes have come out in support of marijuana for injury maintenance across North America, putting pressure on various leagues to study the drug more extensively. But until polices change, marijuana will remain the most confusingly banned substance out there.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has cannabinoids (there’s at least 113 different kinds of them found in cannabis, which is most commonly called marijuana) prohibited for “in competition” use but not for “all times”, perfectly encapsulating the oddities when it comes to all the varying stances on the plant.
Wada allows the use of naturally occurring cannabidiol, but prohibits the use of various other forms (hashish, D9-tetrahydrocannabinol, commonly known as THC, cannabis and marijuana). The fact that this is technically contradictory policy from Wada is an exclamation point on a raging topic: no one in the athletic community knows how to handle marijuana, let alone define it.