12345 wrote:
The two good reasons are
1) It's illegal
and
2) Athletes are role models
Should weed be legal? Maybe, but the fact is it's not, and it's not going to be any time soon, so athletes who break the law should be sanctioned. Kids look up to and mimic the best athletes in their favorite sport. I certainly wouldn't want my kids smoking dope because some bigshot sprinter says it's okay.
Can I assume you are OK with banning athletes for all other actions that are illegal?
I love when people use the 'role model for kids' excuse. Raise your kids the right way, and be a role model yourself! Doesn't matter what is legal or illegal, athletes will continue to beat wives, take drugs, drive drunk, cheat, etc..... Human beings make good decisions and bad decisions, that wont change. Parents are their childrens biggest role models for at least the beginning years while the child is growing up. Other role models include teachers, peers, they watch TV, listen to music. Quit passing the blame and raise your children to know what is right or wrong! I know people that smoke pot and are very, very successful!!
I agree, it is stupid to test a track athlete for marijuana. They certainly don't enhance their performances by using it.
cndoia wrote:
Why is it that other sports give athletes a slap on the wrist when it comes to these recreational drugs...
How many times do you hear about the NFL player, NBA player, or international footballers ETC. Yet, they are not "banned" - seriously, what gives here?
???
Based on nothing but my own perception I suspect that if the NFL were serious about drug testing and had a perfect test for steriod use, they would not be able to field two complete teams from the entire league of players.
asdf90099090 wrote:
Marijuana is illegal for non-medical use. Thus, it should be banned and tested for. My 2oo cents.
Why should it be banned and tested for? If it is illegal by law that's the government's job, not track and field's. We don't ban track athletes with too many speeding tickets, do we?
Athletes are NOT role models. Every single parent in the world should teach their children that.
I am not sure if this is correct at all, but I understand that it could possibly be used as a masking agent. I'm not sure it works or anything like that, but if this is the case then it makes pretty good sense to make it illegal.
I might be wrong, but the purpose of my previous post was because I am pretty sure the banned substance list is developed by WADA or the IOC or some other international body. It is not sport specific. There are sports where it helps to be wasted and that's 1 reason it is on the list. The other is the legal issue and regardless what a previous poster said I find it hard to believe that pot is legal in most countries.
The biggest issue here is that a professional athlete, who obviously knows the rules, intentionally broke the rules and is now being punished for it. That doesn't make him a victim it makes him a moron.
Of course athletes are role models.
I think the testers got PED's mixed up with "drugs" on their list. Maybe they need more mental clarity.
SalukiAlum wrote:
I know people that smoke pot and are very, very successful!!
Like... THE PRESIDENT.
Athletes should not be banned for pot, it should be taken off of the banned substances list.
As for the parent who can't be a role model to his kid, that is his problem and he has no right to put athletes up on a pedestal. The parent is the problem here, not the innocent athlete who was just doing a little grass.
It's just like any other job, you get tested for pot and if you test positive then you're punished. Plain and simple. In fact they should have more severe consequenses because their actions have an impact on more people than someone sitting at a computer all day punching in data.
ray wrote:
I find it hard to believe that pot is legal in most countries.
Its effectively decriminalised in most of western europe and canada, as well as several states in the US.
U have to try pretty hard to get arrested solely for possession of say 10g of pot.
MJ is just another drug like alcohol, tobacco, cocaine etc. Each has its pros and cons, risks etc.
In the panoply of substances to use, MJ is extremely benign.
While I see no benign effects on track & field, I think weed is probably Public Enemy #1 in the field of competitive eating
Much of the point of WADA is to have ONE banned list across all sports, so (a) doctors aren't confused and (b) they can develop cost-effective tests with economies of scale. I doubt any money would be saved by pulling out this category of test.
I just checked and cannabinoids are banned for all sports. There is a poor translation of a meeting on the subject below; it seems there was some argument that they might give athletes an advantage by helping them calm down before competition...!
Some other sources claim (perhaps more honestly) that they are banned because they are illegal in most countries and bad for the sports' image.
isn't it legal in oregon for medicinal purposes? are there any athletes with a TUE?
SalukiAlum wrote:
I love when people use the 'role model for kids' excuse. Raise your kids the right way, and be a role model yourself! Doesn't matter what is legal or illegal, athletes will continue to beat wives, take drugs, drive drunk, cheat, etc..... Human beings make good decisions and bad decisions, that wont change. Parents are their childrens biggest role models for at least the beginning years while the child is growing up. Other role models include teachers, peers, they watch TV, listen to music. Quit passing the blame and raise your children to know what is right or wrong! I know people that smoke pot and are very, very successful!!
Do you ever read the news? I am not all that sure that many parents are good role models for their kids either.
Whether you like it or not the vast, vast majority of kids will look outside the home for role models. Maybe those are additional role models, but ignoring the impact of an athlete (or celebrity) is just stupid.
ray wrote:
I might be wrong, but the purpose of my previous post was because I am pretty sure the banned substance list is developed by WADA or the IOC or some other international body. It is not sport specific. There are sports where it helps to be wasted and that's 1 reason it is on the list. The other is the legal issue and regardless what a previous poster said I find it hard to believe that pot is legal in most countries.
The biggest issue here is that a professional athlete, who obviously knows the rules, intentionally broke the rules and is now being punished for it. That doesn't make him a victim it makes him a moron.
What sport do think it helps to be wasted?
I do agree that getting banned for pot is really stupid.
Pot head wrote:
It's just like any other job, you get tested for pot and if you test positive then you're punished. Plain and simple. In fact they should have more severe consequenses because their actions have an impact on more people than someone sitting at a computer all day punching in data.
I will make the argument that a track athlete smoking pot could do far less damage than a person sitting at a terminal. I cannot see a way pot is performance enhancing so the athlete is not taking prize money from another athlete (as opposed to PEDs that are performance enhancing). Also, how many people know who Williams is? So his impact is going to be minimal. Also, did he say anywhere that pot is okay to use?
That person sitting at a computer terminal could be in a job where errors in data entry could cause all kinds of problems like errors on credit reports that would impact far more people. Or being too stoned to get the work done and costing a company and people money.
So, yeah, kids and athletes can take a long walk off a short pier.
Kids: So, some kids are going to eff around and when they get caught, they're going to claim "But why not, such-and-such smokes pot/drives drunk/ beats his wife/ dishonestly reports charity contributions on his 1040." Those kids are too dumb to live. In fact, anyone who does something soley because some famous person did it needs to be thrown out of the gene pool.
Athletes: These people get paid and often make a very good living playing a freakin game! A game! Or, in the case of track people, they get paid for running in circles. If you "job" is something most people do for fun, you really can't complain. Your work is playtime so if you have to do a little more because of it, like wearing a suit at NBA events vice dressing like a gang member, or not smoking weed in your free time, then so be it. If you don't like it, quit and get a crappy real job like the rest of us. You don't get to spend all your days playing, but you can smoke weed every night if you want.
I am trying to think of reasons why they would test for this and DQ athletes.
* It is illegal in may areas -
Are they cooperating with the police with these tests and will this test lead to prosecution? No.
Do they DQ athletes if they are noticed doing other illegal activities? No.
I don't see how legality has anything to do with it.
* It is performance enhancing -
No, it is not. I hear the WADA generalization argument an don't think they placed it there as a PED for anything.
* Bad image for the sport -
No one knows they are smoking pot until these tests are released. So they do bad PR to themselves with these tests.
* The people who oversee the rules consider themselves the morality police and they are control freaks with power -
Taht's it