Pubdate: Sun, 17 Jul 2005
Source: Sunday Star-Times (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2005 Sunday Star-Times
Contact:  http://www.sundaystartimes.co.nz
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1064
Author: Gary Birkett
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

CANNABIS TESTING SLAMMED

New Zealand Sports Drug Agency executive director Graeme Steel wants 
Wada, the world anti-doping agency, to wipe cannabis from its banned 
list so it can concentrate on catching "cheats" who use 
performance-enhancing drugs such as steroids, human-growth hormones and EPO.

"We don't want to be seen as social police," Steel told the Sunday Star-Times.

"We've always regarded ourselves as being here to stop cheats. Now we 
have to spend time doing other things, which we are not well set up to do.

"You can get sidetracked and that makes it doubly difficult. We need 
to be efficient, quick to respond and focused on the key doping issues."

He said there is no obvious evidence elite New Zealand sports people 
were widely using cannabis or herbal party pills, with 11 positives 
for cannabis and one last week for party drug ingredient 
benzylpiperazine (BZP), in the 18 months since Wada put cannabis on 
its banned list.

Touch had the most cannabis positives with five.

There was also no evidence of young Kiwi athletes using party pills, 
which have names like Blast or Frenzy, to "fire up" before competition.

Steel warned that testing for cannabis inflated costs and increased 
staff workloads. Better education by individual sports was the key to 
warning athletes of the dangers of using recreational drugs, he said.

"It's more about trying to find ways to encourage athletes to work 
their way off it (recreational drugs), rather than penalising them. 
The current approach doesn't really address the issue."

The overall results from the NZSDA testing programme showed that 
doping is not a major problem in New Zealand sport.

 From about 2250 samples of elite and age-group athletes there were 
22 positives overall from January 1, 2004, to June 30, 2005.

Bodybuilding, which has a history of steroid abuse, accounted for six 
of the positives, including one for cannabis.

"I wouldn't be naive enough to say we are catching everybody, but 
they have to be pretty quick on their feet to beat us. There's 
undoubtedly a few athletes who are beating our system but nothing to 
suggest there's any culture of systematic doping."

Steel said the positive cannabis tests in New Zealand had not come 
from the top level of professional sport such as the All Blacks, 
Warriors and Silver Ferns, but from various levels below them, 
including rugby's NPC (one) and the Bartercard Cup national rugby 
league competition (one).

Touch NZ had increased its education programmes and was working 
closely with the NZSDA. "They are working very hard with us. I've got 
no criticism of touch as an organisation . . . they have been much 
more pro-active than most sports."

Most offenders received a warning or a short ban after one positive 
cannabis test, but a second positive could lead to a two-year ban.

A survey of 300 Kiwi athletes recently found 58% believed the NZSDA 
tested for cannabis, with 23% saying it didn't and 19% not knowing.

Asked if they felt the agency should test for cannabis, 56% said yes, 
38% no and 6% did not know.

The positive to BZP last week caught NZSDA by surprise.

BZP is the active ingredient in "herbal highs" currently sold legally 
in New Zealand. Athletes are banned from using BZP because it has 
performance-enhancing potential.

However, most athletes, including the male who tested positive, had 
no idea Wada had made BZP a banned drug, Steel said.

"It would've been helpful if we'd been told in advance and we could 
have alerted athletes."

He would not name the athlete, who faces a possible two-year ban, but 
said he was not high profile.
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