Pubdate: Sun, 22 Sep 2002
Source: Newsday (NY)
Copyright: 2002 Newsday Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/308
Author: Michael Dobie

THE SEARCH FOR A JOINT RESOLUTION

Marijuana Use In All Sports, But Detection Is Inconsistent

As controversy surrounding alleged marijuana use by players swirls around 
the Mets, baseball officials have embraced a familiar mantra: We're just a 
reflection of society.

The same words were spoken a few years ago by Billy Hunter, executive 
director of the NBA players association, when that league was confronted 
with reports of extensive marijuana use among its players.

But the focus on marijuana, the furor and the rationalizations obscure a 
more important point: If it's not pot, it'll be something else.

Last month, steroids were in the limelight as baseball grappled with drug 
testing during its labor negotiations. Now it's the Mets and marijuana. 
Next ...

"Clearly, it underscores a broader issue: If it's marijuana today, it's 
another drug tomorrow," said Long Island physician Gary Wadler, an expert 
on drug use in sports who serves on the Health and Medical Research 
Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency. "To limit our discussion of drug 
use in baseball to steroids is burying our heads in the sand and pretty 
deeply. There will be another drug du jour down the road."

Reports about marijuana use among the Mets, Wadler said, "really call into 
play the comprehensiveness of the drug-testing policy in baseball and how 
the new agreement has dealt with that."

When players and owners agreed last month to establish Major League 
Baseball's first drug-testing program, the only banned substance listed was 
steroids. Besides raising eyebrows, the agreement underscored the different 
ways various sports organizations have dealt with drugs and, in particular, 
with marijuana, which enjoys an unusual status - illegal but not 
performance-enhancing, and socially acceptable by many.

The NHL has the simplest policy: no drug testing at all. The only 
exception, NHL spokesman Frank Brown said, is that players who have turned 
themselves in to the league's substance- abuse and behavioral-health 
program are tested as part of their aftercare. Drug testing never has been 
a bone of contention during labor negotiations.

The NFL, which has had a spate of recent cases of player involvement with 
marijuana, began testing for marijuana and other drugs in 1987. Under 
guidelines refined in 1994, players are tested once between May and July. A 
positive test subjects the players to random testing, usually for the rest 
of their careers, and sends them into counseling. A second positive results 
in a four-game suspension without pay, and a third positive test means a 
minimum one-year suspension.

Steelers offensive tackle Marvel Smith, Browns players Mike Sellers and 
Lamar Chapman, Eagles defensive back Terrence Carroll and Panthers wide 
receiver Muhsin Muhammad were arrested for possession of marijuana in 
separate incidents in the last 10 months alone. Former Cowboys star Nate 
Newton pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute marijuana in April; he 
still awaits trial in another case in which 213 pounds of marijuana were 
found in his truck.

Marijuana use has been most problematic in the NBA. Former Knicks forward 
Charles Oakley recently estimated that more than 50 percent of the league's 
players use marijuana. A report published in the New York Times in 1997 put 
the number between 60 and 70 percent.

Among the dozens of NBA players who have had legal or league disciplinary 
problems stemming from marijuana use or possession are Chris Webber, Damon 
Stoudamire, Allen Iverson, Marcus Camby, Isaiah Rider, Lamar Odom, Cliff 
Robinson, Keon Clark and Maurice Taylor. Former WNBA All-Star Brandy Reed 
was arrested on possession charges in June.

The resulting negative publicity helped prompt the NBA Players Association 
to agree in 1999 to add marijuana to the list of banned substances under 
the league's testing program. One positive test requires a player to enter 
the league's substance-abuse program. A second positive carries a $15,000 
fine, and every positive result thereafter carries a mandatory five-game 
suspension. Critics have charged the effectiveness of the test was lessened 
when the league informed players when to expect the tests.

"They let us know about it, so it shouldn't be a problem," then-Knicks 
forward John Wallace said at the time. "It's just a matter of doing what 
you have to do to make sure that when the time comes, you're right."

There were few surprises when NBA commissioner David Stern trumpeted the 
fact that the first preseason testing in 1999 produced only 12 positive 
results from 430 players.

The NCAA leaves drug testing up to individual schools, 48 percent of which 
have instituted such a program. Of those schools that do testing, 90 
percent test for marijuana. The NCAA does its own random drug testing at 
selected championships, including nearly every Division I championship.

The Olympic movement, which has conducted full-scale drug testing since 
1972, did not begin to test for marijuana until the Winter Games in Nagano 
in 1998. It was there that Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati was 
stripped of his gold medal after testing positive for marijuana; Rebagliati 
blamed second-hand smoke. The medal was restored when Olympic officials 
said there had been no prior written agreement regarding testing for 
marijuana, which at that time was considered a restricted, but not 
prohibited, substance. No one has tested positive for marijuana at the 
Summer Games.

Outside the Olympic Games, testing is done by each sport's international 
federation, some of which do not include marijuana on their list of 
prohibited substances. Three male U.S. gymnasts tested positive for 
marijuana in an unannounced, out-of-competition test in January and 
received "severe warnings" from the International Gymnastics Federation. 
Any subsequent positive test could result in a suspension of up to two 
years, the federation said.

Although accounts of marijuana use in professional sports are mostly 
anecdotal, there is evidence from the college ranks to suggest that 
marijuana use is widespread.

According to the NCAA's latest study of substance abuse, more than 27 
percent of college athletes reported that they use marijuana. Rates of use 
vary widely among sports.

Football, baseball and men's basketball hovered around the average - 27.3 
percent for football players, 26.9 percent for baseball and 23.6 percent 
for basketball. The highest rates of marijuana use were in women's skiing 
(60.8 percent), men's water polo (57.5) and men's lacrosse (47.9); the 
lowest rates were in women's fencing (10.0), women's gymnastics (13.5) and 
women's track and field (16.4). The survey, which was released in 2001, 
included responses from more than 21,000 athletes.

The survey also suggested that the problem of marijuana use begins before 
college. More than three-quarters (78.5 percent) of the college athletes 
who smoke marijuana said they began using the drug before they entered 
college. Earlier this week, U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona said that 
one out of five eighth-graders has tried marijuana, double the rate of 10 
years ago.

One of the elements surrounding marijuana use among athletes is that it is 
not a performance-enhancing drug. Marijuana reduces hand-eye coordination 
and reaction time, reduces motor coordination, impairs concentration and 
distorts time, Wadler said. And marijuana continues to affect the system 24 
hours after it is used.

"If you're doing a joint the night before a game, you're negatively 
impacting your performance," Wadler said, "especially something with 
hand-eye coordination and something with tracking ability, like following a 
96 mile-per-hour fastball. If it's used in a parking lot between ballgames, 
that's a particular problem."
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