Legal pot and the impact on sport

“It is still an illegal substance in the Canadian Hockey League.”

Rick Doerksen is the Vice President of the Western Hockey League, and says just because the law has changed, the rules haven’t.

“The CCS is who we work under, the CHL umbrella is with the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports,” says Doerksen. “They administer the anti-doping program in the CHL. We have random testing at our games throughout the season and playoffs. As long as marijuana is on the banned substance list, if a player has consumed and is selected for random test, there will be sanctions if he is found to have absorbed marijuana.”

Doerksen says the league is concentrating on educating its players on how cannabis will affect society. The rules also won’t change in USports, the national umbrella under which TRU WolfPack athletes fall.

“It’s pretty clear nationally from the USports level,” says TRU athletic director Curtis Atkinson. “We’re governed by the Canadian anti-doping program which complies with the World Anti-Doping Agency prohibited substance list.”

Marijuana is on that list, and all WolfPack athletes are subject to random drug testing.

“Doping control officers could show up on campus at a team meeting, a team practice, a game at home or away, and our athletes have to be available for that,” says Atkinson. “They’re randomly selected, and we have had athletes tested this year, and that can happen at any time.”

“It’s not allowed at all for university USports athletes, so it’s very simple,” says former Canada West President Ian Reade. “If they test positive they could be banned anywhere from one to four years.”

It’s more of a grey area for teams and players in the B.C. Football Conference. Kamloops Broncos president Dino Bernardo says the BCFC and Canadian Junior Football Conference haven’t formulated a plan yet. Bernardo says it will be a topic of discussion at the CJFC annual meeting at nationals this fall.

“It’s going to take time,” says Bernardo, “and all of this is going to trickle down. We’re going to see what the professional leagues are doing, we’re going to see what Football Canada’s stance on it is. I don’t think we can make an educated guess on what’s going to happen. I think we just need to take time and figure it all out.”

While the rules haven’t changed for most leagues, there are athletes who could be exempt.

“The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports does have a medical exemption,” says TRU Athletic Director Curtis Atkinson. “Athletes do have to apply through the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports with appropriate medical documentation.”

“We do have what we call a theuraputic exemption,” says the Western Hockey League’s Rick Doerksen. “Obviously it’s a very thorough process. It comes from a doctor and there’s a scrutinization of that to make sure everything is on the up-and-up.”

So the rules are pretty simple and unchanged in high level sport — if you dope, you’re on a short rope, and open to sanctions.

by Earl Seitz

Legal pot and the impact on sport

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