Rebagliati: WADA should remove cannabis from banned list

MONTREAL: With Canada about to legalise marijuana on Wednesday, the World Anti-Doping Agency should remove cannabis from its banned list of drugs, says Canadian Ross Rebagliati, whose Olympic snowboard gold medal was taken away after he tested positive for the drug then subsequently returned on a technicality.

WADA, who fight the use of drugs in sport, are based in Montreal where 12 marijuana shops were due to open yesterday. WADA continue to ban the recreational drug while Canadians are preparing to light up without fear of breaking the law.

For athletes the dread of being busted for smoking a joint remains, with cannabinoids such as cannabis, hashish and marijuana prohibited from in-competition use.

“I think it’s time, it’s overdue actually,” Rebagliati, who won gold at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, said, referring to removing cannabis from WADA’s banned list.

“If athletes are allowed to consume alcohol and tobacco let them have weed. It is the only thing that is good for you of those three things.”

Rebagliati, 47, now runs a company called Legacy Brands, a cannabis company focusing on cannabidiol consumables (CBD), nutrients and home growing kits. Cannabidiol is the marijuana extract used for medicinal purposes.

In 1998, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), anxious to attract a younger audience, introduced snowboarding for the Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, and the first gold went to Rebagliati.

He was disqualified and stripped of his medal when testers found traces of cannabis, then reinstated on the technicality that marijuana was not at that time on the banned list.

“My medal was the only medal in Olympic history that has ever been given back,” said Rebagliati.

“I always found it interesting that cannabis wasn’t on the list of banned substances when I was at the Olympics and (that) was why I got to keep it in the end.”