iowalover wrote:
Not signing...this is about behavior and respect for the law.
FYI, weed is still illegal, federally. Yes, it is legal in some states, but the United States declares it an illegal substance. She is competing for the United States, NOT for Colorado. Or Oregon.
Slavery and interracial marriage was against the law once upon a time. Some laws are stupid and shouldn’t be enforced.
Greg, you are correct in that the science is settled that pot, particularly with today’s THC levels, has negative development impacts on young people, and in about 10 percent of the cases, the outcomes are noticeably negative. I am in favor of decriminalization, but at the same time find it foolish to claim pot is harmless. It is a public health issue.
I don’t think this point relevant to Richardson’s situation, however.
I have not read any data supporting pot enhancing performance. A study of NBA athletes would be interesting. Governing bodies have trouble resisting their own inertia, so I don’t see the rule changing easily. But smoking pot to relax?
This strikes me a an exercise in legalism. The sport should out the substantial cheaters.
olyrun wrote:
Whether our not you agree with cannabis being on the WADA list is irrelevant. It is on the banned list and clearly cannot be used by athletes. The athletes can protest for a change regarding marijuana being taken off the list but until then the athletes have to abide by the rule. The anti doping agency's are not perfect and doing the best they can. And yet here is another well liked athlete testing positive and we immediately blame WADA.
If you say doping agencies are not perfect then why can't this whole thing be challenged as being imperfect and those "convicted" are reinstated? That actually happens in US law when convictions are overturned because a law was found unconstitutional. This can be used as a landmark case where the plaintiff wins and the law is changed. Happened in Miranda vs. Arizona.
No way. Professional athletes need to be held to high standards. This is why they are paid millions of dollars in endorsement deals & other contracts. No exceptions.
Jenna Prandini worked hard & deserves to go in her place. So what if she doesn't even make the final. She followed the rules, and THAT is what matters. NOBODY is above the law.
THUMBS DOWN
I'll sign it. Is this it?
click the link at the beginning of the thread.
Pookie X wrote:
iowalover wrote:
Not signing...this is about behavior and respect for the law.
FYI, weed is still illegal, federally. Yes, it is legal in some states, but the United States declares it an illegal substance. She is competing for the United States, NOT for Colorado. Or Oregon.
Slavery and interracial marriage was against the law once upon a time. Some laws are stupid and shouldn’t be enforced.
And Fascist Germany created their own laws to commence the Holocaust because they didn't like the Jews behavior. But let's obey the law without question or challenge. And it's not surprising given the rhetoric on this site.
Achtung Baby!!
Nah, hard pass. I'm sympathetic to Sha'Carri but I'd never want to associate my identity with you or this site.
SO many bootlickers in this thread screaming "but the rules are rules!" Are you Germans? What's with the blind rule-following? Don't stand behind the "rules are rules" BS for a draconian statute.
I signed it.
Greg wrote:
blameusatf wrote:
People who are saying that she should have known the rules etc…. Athletes are people. We should not be subjecting them to stupid restrictions for absolutely no reason. Marijuana can really help with anxiety. For all the talk of supporting mental health, here’s someone under immense pressure, from a broken home, dealing with the recent death of her biological mother and she…smoked a joint. And now because she did people really think it’s appropriate to kick her off of the Olympic team? We should be providing thc to track and field athletes to help deal with stress, not banning it.
I actually do feel for her and was tempted to sign. I mean she's a great athlete and smoked a joint which doesn't enhance her performance.
But there is also the fact rules are rules.
I've abided by rules through most of my life. I had speeding tickets, I had to pay the consequences. I never have enjoyed alcohol, so I never had to worry about any consequences there.
I have tried cannabis a total of 2 or 3 times in my life. The first time I felt a bit high, it was unique but I wasn't desperate to try it again.
I've dealt with hardship and stress. I didn't go for alcohol or cannabis.
I know that smoking a joint doesn't make you a bad person per say, but in my life generally (at least when I was younger) the people who smoked pot where
-academically less inclined
-lazy
-also into other drugs
-basically the kind of people I rarely if ever associated with
I feel for her and it must be devastating to run a great time, but rules are rules. We all face hardships.
What are the chances of the other 3 athletes giving up their spots to support her?
Per say?
Did you finish high school? Serious question.
High hopes wrote:
This has got to be the dumbest crusade yet from LRC. Asking other 100m runners to give up bonuses, maybe new contracts or salary increases, to let someone slide onto the team with a drugs ban? And they do that out of the goodness of their hearts?
It's also disappointing to see LRC continually adopting a soft line on doping. Every time a US medal contender gets sanctioned, LRC advocates for a rule change. With Coleman it was change the rules so that there's always a warning phone call, with Houlihan it was change the rules to allow more nandrolone to be present in an athlete's system, now it's change the rules to allow THC.
Maybe the rules aren't the problem here, maybe it's the athletes themselves and the enablers around them who are always trying to absolve them of responsibility for their actions
+1
Rojo has evidently no shame.
Drug cheats out!
A Brazilian wrote:
I don't smoke weed. But isn't it supposed to make you feel calm and help you controlling anxiety?
If yes, then I am sorry, she needs to be disqualified. Performance enhancing shouldn't be only about enhancing your physical body, but also improving your mental state. If you need an external substance to control your mind before a major event, well, you are taking a performance enhancing drug. No need to remind that great champions are often not the most talented but those that can combine their physical and mental states the best, without an "external" support. Mens Sana in Corpore Sano.
This argument is a non starter because drinking herbal tea or coffee can basically be classified as "improving your mental state" and a performance enhancing drug and external support. We all do little things to control our anxiety.
Signed. It's a stupid rule and she didn't violate the spirit of the competition. And most importantly she owned up to it and didn't say that it was second hand smoke or that she must've gotten a whiff of somebody eating offal.
uhoh....time to find a white athlete who tested positive for THC and no penalty so we can make this a race issue. Obviously she has been targeted for her skin color. Sure guilty as hell, but that does not matter.
My take on this: I am against USATF invalidating her results. I am OK if they want to give her the 30 days of punishment. That's the rule, I disagree with it but it's a rule.
But to not select her for her well-earned spot for something that is not performance-enhancing or cheating is absurd. Smoking weed did not make her results any less fair. I don't think anyone serious thinks it enhanced her performance. Possibly in some screwed-up way in blocking the anxiety and angst of her biological mother passing away. But that's not problematic to me if weed helped her that way.
In addition, our fourth and fifth finishers got beaten fair-and-square and are two major medal hopes in the 200m. There's no big winner with Sha'Carri out. Now Prandini and/or Thomas are less likely to win 4x100m gold. That might be a bigger deal to them than running a second event where they're likely to finish 6th-DFL in the final or get bounced in the semis.
Nobody got screwed, nobody benefits, and USATF should let her serve the ban and keep her spot for her.
Because why have rules, right? 😃
This is comically stupid.
Anyone else notice during the Today Show interview that Sha’Carri’s smoke detector battery was chirping in the background? May be relevant…
Deadstream wrote:
Because why have rules, right? 😃
This is comically stupid.
The rule is there to deter athletes from using not invalidate results. This is a separate conversation from PEDs. Again, this one month punishment would be a "who cares?" moment if not for our rigid Trials system.
It is a sport, stupid. It is not the law of the land. When you participate in a sport, you agree to the rules. Nobody makes you particioate. This is very straightforward.