Pubdate: Thu, 23 Apr 2015 Source: Edmonton Journal (CN AB) Copyright: 2015 The Edmonton Journal Website: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/134 Author: Joe O'Connor Page: A12 POT AN ATHLETIC SUPPORTER? Rebagliati says it can improve sports results TORONTO - 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. 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," he 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 a 110 per cent." Studies have shown 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 too many joints on the chairlift. Mark Ware is an associate professor at McGill University and executive director of the Canadian Consortium for the Investigation of Cannabinoids. He can't say whether cannabis boosts performance, 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 using pot is an integral part of their training. "We owe it to these people to follow up," Ware 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 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. 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 - --- MAP posted-by: Matt