Pubdate: Thu, 23 Apr 2015 Source: National Post (Canada) Copyright: 2015 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286 Author: Joe O'Connor Page: A3 STONERS' STEROID Olympian Rebagliati touts pot as a performance-enhancing drug Ross Rebagliati had just finished smoking his seventh joint of the day. But he was not high, he said, or stoned, or baked or whatever else one might assume another human being would be after smoking their seventh joint of the day - by 3:30 p.m. "I am just keeping an even keel," Rebagliati said, adding that cannabis use is all about individual tolerance and dosing. Smoke or eat too much and a user risks feeling anxious, or paranoid. But the 1998 Olympic snowboarding champion who rocketed to fame in Nagano for winning the gold - before rocketing to infamy for testing positive for marijuana afterwards - definitely wasn't paranoid. He was kicking back against a brick wall, and puffing away, in clear view of a Toronto streetcar stop while an immense cloud of marijuana smoke hovered over nearby Dundas Square. The Whistler, B.C., resident had come east to add his voice to a pro marijuana rally and to market some product - including a gold-plated water pipe that retails for $24,420 - as the chief pitchman and namesake behind Ross' Gold, a "premium branded medical cannabis." Rebagliati's medical pot company is wending its way through the government licensing process, leaving him plenty of time to proselytize on the merits of marijuana as medicine, but also as a performance-enhancing substance for elite athletes. That's right: a steroid for stoners. "The stereotype of the pot smoker was pretty much thrown aside when I came along in 1998," Rebagliati says. "I had short hair. I was an Olympic gold medallist. I was in the best shape of my life ... "And for me, whether you are skiing, or snowboarding, or riding a road bike, or working out at the gym, (marijuana use) puts you in the moment. "You get in a zone where you can give it 110 per cent." I know what you are thinking because, traditionally, science has thought so, too: the only performance pot smoking will enhance is how much pizza a person is capable of eating at a single sitting. Studies have shown that THC, the main active chemical in pot - and the compound that gets one high - impairs hand-eye co-ordination, reaction times and the ability to concentrate. It also makes you sleepy. Not ideal when getting ready for the big race. But Rebagliati's ideas about pot and elevated performance aren't necessarily the ramblings of a middle aged snowboarder - he turns 44 in July - who has smoked a few too many joints on the chairlift. Mark Ware is an associate professor at McGill University and the executive director of the Canadian Consortium for the Investigation of Cannabinoids. He can't say whether cannabis boosts performance or not, because the data doesn't exist. No studies have been done. What is available are anecdotes, from the likes of Rebagliati, NFL players, ultra-marathoners - and even professional cage fighters - who say that using pot is an integral part of their training. "We owe it to these people to follow up," the professor says. "These are very interesting ideas and hypotheses, and I would take them very seriously." Andrea Giuffrida, an associate professor at the University of Texas, says cannabidiol - or CBD - another chemical compound present in marijuana, may, in isolation, boost the production of endorphin-like molecules during prolonged exercise. Endorphins produce the so-called "runners high," a feeling of euphoria, where an athlete transcends the aches and pains, and runs free. "But again, there is not very much science around this topic yet," Giuffrida said in an email. Nate Jackson played six NFL seasons with the Denver Broncos. He smoked pot throughout, using it to dull the pain, and as a natural alternative to the handfuls of painkillers team trainers freely dispensed. He has urged the NFL to remove marijuana from its banned substance list, and believes that the drug boosted his performance - though has cautioned that what works for one athlete could be a disaster for the next. "Some people get high and their muscle memory locks in and they feel like they can't miss," Jackson told Men's Journal last year. "Some people get high and fall apart." Rebagliati was smoking weed at the pro-pot rally in Toronto as a show of solidarity. For the most part, he ingests it. Mixing cannabis infused honey with his morning coffee, in smoothies and other assorted marijuana-as-food concoctions. He has two young children now, with another due in July. So how will pot enhance his parenting performance when, for example, his six-year-old son hits 16 and comes home late reeking of marijuana? "There is no sure way you can protect your kids from everything," Rebagliati says, sounding like a concerned dad, and citing studies indicating marijuana use may impair brain development, especially in young males. But as a parent, you just have to try your best." Try your best, and maintain an even keel. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt