Despite legalization, cannabis remains prohibited for Canadian athletes

Canada’s anti-doping watchdogs are warning athletes that while cannabis use will become legal for the average Canadian as of next weekend, a toke remains taboo for them.

CBD is the short form for “annabidiol,’’ a cannabis extract. But the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) would rather athletes remember it as “Can Be Dangerous.’’

The message is part of a CCES social media campaign to alert athletes to potential pitfalls around the legalization of marijuana. The drug remains on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned substance list, and Paul Melia, the president and CEO of the CCES, said that Canadian athletes need to remember that.

“No. 1, we wanted to make sure that athletes didn’t confuse (legalization) with whether or not marijuana was banned in competition in sport. It does remain banned,’’ Melia said.

The CCES, which conducts doping tests across Canadian sport on behalf of the Canadian Anti-Doping Program, doesn’t screen for cannabis in out-of-competition tests. The concern, however, is that an athlete might use cannabis in AP PHOTO A vendor in the Nagano train station hawks T-shirts showing a Canadian flag with a marijuana leaf substituted for a maple leaf in reference to Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati, in this file photo from thje 1998 Nagano Olympics in Japan. Rebagliati temporarily lost his gold medal after testing positive for marijuana. Canada’s anti-doping watchdogs are warning athletes that while cannabis use will become legal for the average Canadian as of next weekend, a toke remains taboo for them.

a recreational setting and the drug might still be in the athlete’s system and show up in an in-competition test.

Because marijuana is fat-soluble, it can be detected in the body weeks after it’s ingested, and depends on several factors including how it was consumed and how much. And the time it takes to clear the system differs from person to person.

“The human biology/physiology and how an individual processes and eliminates marijuana from the system is quite individual, it is quite related to the metabolic rate or size, all kinds of issues, so we can’t even provide a rule of thumb, so (athletes) have to be very careful,’’ Melia said.

The CCES has lobbied for the removal of cannabis from WADA’s banned list. Other countries argue vehemently against removal.

“There are countries like the U.S. and Japan, to name two, who feel very strongly about marijuana being an illicit drug and a gateway drug to other drugs, and part of the war on drugs in the U.S., and they don’t want to send a message in any way, shape or form that it’s OK to use marijuana,’’ Melia said.