Pubdate: Sun, 04 May 2003
Source: New York Daily News (NY)
Copyright: 2003 Daily News, L.P.
Contact:  http://www.nydailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/295
Author: Michael O'Keeffe

MARIJUANA A PART OF 'EXTREME' LIFESTYLE

Bob Burnquist might be the world's greatest skateboarder, and he is 
certainly its greatest innovator, considered an artist whose flair and 
imagination have stretched the boundaries of his sport.

Jen O'Brien is his girlfriend, and she's one of skateboarding's top female 
competitors. They live together near San Diego with their young daughter, 
Lotus, in a home with a skateboard park and an organic vegetable garden in 
the yard.

Most pro athletes flee from anything that smacks of controversy, but 
Burnquist, 26, and O'Brien, 24, feel compelled to stand up for marijuana. 
Legalize it, they say - marijuana can be used for fuel, for medicine, even 
for food. Oh yeah, they add, it also makes people feel good. "There is so 
much we can do with it," Burnquist says.

It's hard to imagine NBA and NFL stars publicly embracing marijuana. The 
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws has tried to coax 
pro athletes to speak out for pot legalization, but the only player who has 
stepped forward is former Dallas Cowboy All-Pro center Mark Stepnoski, now 
the president of NORML's Texas chapter.

Skateboarders and other extreme or action sports athletes, including those 
in motocross, snowboarding and surfing, don't feel so inhibited. O'Brien 
even appeared on the cover of High Times magazine last year, holding a big, 
fat bud. "I believe it's God's gift to us," says O'Brien, who won't say if 
she actually smokes pot. Burnquist says he's an occasional toker.

"We smoke all the time," says motocross rider Beau Manley. "It's part of 
what we do - ride and get stoned with our bros."

Burnquist supports O'Brien's decision to pose for High Times, but he says 
he isn't entirely comfortable with his own position on pot. He knows he's a 
role model for a lot of kids. He knows pot advocates have been targeted by 
cops.

But Burnquist is also a vegetarian and a committed environmentalist. He 
refuses to endorse junk food, even though companies have offered big-money 
deals. Marijuana, he says, is an environmentally sound source of many 
products, and its benefits to society outweigh the risks to his career. "I 
feel like I have to fight for what I believe in," he says.

One reason athletes in action sports are more comfortable with pot is that 
they emerged from the punk rock scene of the 1980s, driven by 
counterculture kids who wanted nothing to do with regimented drills and 
authoritarian coaches. Drug laws didn't matter to kids who were jumping 
fences to skateboard in empty swimming pools.

"The ski areas wouldn't even allow us on the mountain," says Ross 
Rebagliati, the Canadian snowboarder whose 1998 Olympic gold medal was 
briefly yanked after he tested positive for marijuana. "Snowboarding was 
cool because adults didn't like it."

The TV networks and corporate sponsors who have fueled action sports' 
phenomenal growth in recent years don't seem to know what to make of these 
outlaw roots. Steve Astephan, who is Burnquist and O'Brien's agent, reacted 
strongly when the Daily News asked him about his clients' views on 
marijuana. "There is no acceptance of marijuana in action sports," he said, 
apparently unaware that one of his clients had appeared in High Times.

Roxy, a clothing company that is one of O'Brien's sponsors, expressed 
displeasure after she appeared in High Times. Josh Krulewitz, a spokesman 
for ESPN, which created and broadcasts the X-Games, claims that he's never 
seen evidence that action sports athletes use marijuana. Meanwhile, Scott 
Bowers, the vice president of sports marketing for Oakley, the sunglasses 
company that is one of Burnquist's sponsors, acknowledges weed is part of 
the scene. "Is illegal drug use something we advocate? No," he says. "But 
are we going to try to control it? No."

Motocross rider Jeremy (Twitch) Stenberg, 21, says some of his sponsors 
even called to congratulate him after he appeared, alongside O'Brien, in 
High Times.

"A lot of people in the motocross industry smoke," says Twitch. "Even the 
guys in the three-piece suits."

Pro sports tests easy to pass

The NFL and NBA both test their athletes for marijuana - but athletes and 
drug experts agree that they mostly measure brainpower, not cannabis use.

You have to be a dope to get caught, they say, since professional athletes 
generally know when they will be tested. Most jocks who smoke pot abstain 
for a month or two before they are asked for a urine sample.

"If you know when the tests are going to be done, only those who don't have 
the intelligence not to get caught get caught," says Andrea Barthwell, 
deputy director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

For those who fail to abstain before the big test, there is a cornucopia of 
products they can take to mask use. "For anyone with $100 and half a brain, 
these tests are easy to beat," says an employee of Pass It, a Las Vegas 
company that sells synthetic urine over the Internet.

But as drug-testing labs become more adept at identifying fake urine, other 
products are rising in popularity. Sold as liquids or capsules, they change 
the appearance of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, and are so 
effective that a handful of states, including New Jersey, ban their sale.

Anti-drug critics say athletes will continue to smoke pot until pro sports 
increases the number of tests it conducts, and makes them random. Marijuana 
traces remain in the bodies of heavy smokers for up to 120 days, and 
players who failed to lay off would be playing Russian roulette with their 
careers.

Drug testing, however, has to be negotiated during collective bargaining 
with players unions, and only the NFL and NBA test with any seriousness. 
Major League Baseball only tests for pot if there's probable cause.

"We don't believe your employer has a right to ask you to prove you haven't 
done anything wrong," says MLB Players Association official Gene Orza.

The NFL, which began testing for marijuana in 1987, screens every player 
for marijuana and other drugs between May and July, when training camps 
begin. Those who test positive are subject to random testing and required 
to undergo counseling; a second positive means a four-game suspension 
without pay, and a third positive brings a minimum one-year suspension.

Mark Stepnoski was tested throughout his college and NFL careers, but the 
five-time Pro Bowl center says he never tested positive, even though he's 
been a regular pot-smoker since high school. Stepnoski, who played for 13 
years with the Cowboys and Oilers, would quit for several weeks before the 
beginning of the testing season.

"It's really kind of demeaning," says Stepnoski, who became the president 
of the Texas chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of 
Marijuana Laws after he hung up his pads in 2001. "But I think the NFL is 
very conscious of its image. ... They don't want to be associated with 
anything involved in drugs."

The NBA began testing in 1999 after a number of high-profile players, 
including Allen Iverson, Marcus Camby and Isaiah Rider were charged with 
marijuana possession, and in the wake of a New York Times article that 
estimated that 60%-70% of players smoke. The tests are conducted at the 
beginning of training camp, and players who come up positive are required 
to enter the league's substance-abuse program. A second positive means a 
$15,000 fine; players who test positive after that are slapped with a 
five-game suspension for each violation.

"Players know when they will be tested," Queens basketball consultant Rob 
Johnson says. "They smoke pot all season and quit just before the tests."

The NHL, like MLB, doesn't test for pot unless there's probable cause, such 
as an arrest. The NCAA tests players for drugs at most Division I 
championships but otherwise leaves drug testing up to individual schools. 
About half its members conduct drug screening, and almost all of those test 
for marijuana.

"I think most of these drug-testing programs are a joke," says the Pass It 
employee. "They just do them for the public relations."

How athletes really score

For many athletes, going on the road means hostile fans, cramped visitors' 
locker rooms, jet lag and uncomfortable hotel rooms.

But at least they don't have to go without their marijuana.

Security at airports, of course, is much tighter than it was before the 
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and many Americans who once didn't think twice 
about sticking their stash in a bathroom kit are now suffering the 
heartbreak of sobriety and leaving their marijuana at home.

But most pro teams take charter flights, and athletes bypass the stringent 
security checks other travelers go through. When possible, teams often 
return home immediately after a game, so players can puff on a post-game 
joint in the privacy of their own living room.

"You don't stay in the city after a game and hang out the way you used to," 
says former Cleveland Cavaliers coach John Lucas, a recovering substance 
abuser. "You don't find people on the road getting into trouble."

Athletes who are on the road for longer trips give their weed to friends or 
clubhouse guys. "That way if anybody gets busted, it is the hanger-on, not 
the player," says Queens basketball consultant Rob Johnson.

The aides and hangers-on rarely carry more than a half-ounce: In many 
states, small amounts are treated like traffic offenses, not trafficking 
offenses. For extended trips, Johnson says, players have their aides drive 
their cars - and their dope - if the city where they are playing is close 
enough.

Then again, many visiting players know dealers in opposing cities, or get 
connected by guys on other teams. They may be foes on the court, but that 
all goes out the window when it's time to chill. "A lot of guys prefer pot 
over alcohol," Johnson says. "After a game, it takes the edge off."

Police blotter

Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Randy Moss took unsportsmanlike conduct to 
a whole new level on Sept. 24, 2002.

After making an illegal turn in downtown Minneapolis, a traffic control 
officer (on foot) whistles and motions for Moss to comply with the traffic 
laws. Instead, the volatile football player points his car at the officer, 
Amy Zaccardi, and begins "pushing her down the street a half block, 
attempting to run her over," according to a complaint filed by Zaccardi in 
Hennepin County court.

In addition to four different counts of traffic violations, Moss is also 
charged with marijuana possession after a gram of pot is found in his Lexus 
sedan. The incident comes a year after Moss failed the NFL's mandated drug 
test and entered the league's substance abuse program.

Moss pleads guilty in December 2002 and is sentenced to 30 days in jail 
(serving only two days), a $1,200 fine and 40 hours community service. Moss 
also issues an apology of sorts: "The incident also may have detracted from 
some of the enjoyment the fans are entitled to. I hope that is not so, but 
it will never happen again. The fans deserve better."

The only person who did not get an apology? Officer Zaccardi.

Here is a look at some athletes who were arrested in 2002-03 for marijuana 
possession:

JANUARY, 2002

Muhsin Muhammad, Carolina Panthers wide receiver; Derek Watson, South 
Carolina running back; Michael Moody, Zephyrhills (Fla.) High School 
running back

MARCH

David Boston, Ariz. Cardinals wide receiver

APRIL

Cedric Benson, Texas running back; Hunter Wall, Oklahoma quarterback

MAY

Duane John, Missouri guard

JUNE

Derreck Robinson, Iowa defensive end

JULY

Marvel Smith, Pittsburgh Steelers offensive tackle; Sean Sonderleiter, Iowa 
center

AUGUST

Keon Clark, Sacramento Kings forward; Montrell Jones, Tennessee wide receiver

SEPTEMBER

Brandy Reed, Phoenix Mercury forward; Shem Hardnette, Montana State running 
back; Quinn Faino, Montana wide receiver

OCTOBER

Randy Moss, Minnesota Vikings wide receiver; Matt Corcoran, Lock Haven 
(Pa.) College wrestler

NOVEMBER

Lee Evans, Wisconsin wide receiver; Jermaine Brooks, Arkansas defensive 
lineman; Cedric Cobbs, Arkansas running back

DECEMBER

Damon Stoudamire and Rasheed Wallace, Portland Trail Blazers; Justin 
Lavasseur, Arizona tight end

2003

Jeffrey Collins, UAB guard; Donta Chandler, Utah State wide receiver; 
Brandon Everage, Oklahoma safety; Jimarr Gallon and Michael Robinson, 
Arkansas football players; Qyntel Woods, Portland Trail Blazers forward; 
Anthony Tumminia, Jupiter (Fla.) HS linebacker.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens