Cannabis Use Violates 'Spirit of Sport' Says World Anti-Doping Agency, Keeps It On Prohibited List

A World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) panel recently decided that marijuana use by athletes violates the "spirit of sport" and laid out its reasons why it will remain on the prohibited list.

What Happened

Made up of experts in sports medicine, law and ethics, the WADA panel reviewed evidence on marijuana use by athletes and shared its conclusions in an August 13 editorial in 'Addiction,' reported Marijuana Moment. 

Recognizing that cannabis does not enhance performance and can provide benefits by “facilitating recovery and reducing pain,” the panel concluded that it will still remain on the Prohibited Substances List. Their logic? In keeping with WADA’s three specific criteria for a drug to remain on the prohibited list, cannabis meets two of them: it represents a potential risk to the health of the athlete and it “violates the spirit of the sport as defined in the Code.”

Too little too late?

WADA recently relaxed its policies on marijuana under international pressure prompted by the case of world champion sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson. When the world's fastest female runner was banned from competing at the Tokyo Olympics for testing positive for cannabis in 2021, WADA increased the threshold for marijuana testing from the previous limit of 15 ng/mL to 150 ng/mL.

NBA, MLB And NFL Move Closer To Accepting Cannabis 

Outside of the Olympics, other sports organizations have changed their rules on cannabis. Pro baseball led the way in 2019 when the MLB removed weed from its banned substances list. The NBA announced at the end of March that it would stop testing players for cannabis. Though the NFL changed its penalty for a positive marijuana result to a fine rather than a suspension in 2020, the league still faces growing pressure to stop testing altogether. 

Las Vegas, an important venue for boxing and MMA, recently decided to no longer regard cannabis as a performance-enhancing substance.

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Image: Benzinga edit with Lazyllama by Shutterstock and jenaragon94 Wikimedia Commons