Dopes

July 3, 2021

Sha’Carri Richardson, America’s best hope for a gold medal in the 100 meters in the upcoming Olympics in Tokyo, has been disqualified for using marijuana. She may be able to anchor the 4X100 relay team. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) claims that marijuana is a performance enhancing drug. Per the WADA, drugs are banned if they meet two of three criteria…they enhance performance, pose a health risk, or violate “the spirit of sport.”

I don’t think that there is any credible evidence that marijuana poses any significant, or even insignificant, health risk. Otherwise, why have many states legalized marijuana already for either recreational and/or medical use? It is a booming business. As for the “spirit of the sport,” that is truly a highly subjective catchall that allows the powers that be to decide the fate of captive athletes based on a “feeling.”

Is marijuana a performance enhancer? Based on anecdotal evidence, marijuana is as much a performance enhancer as alcohol is to steady one’s nerve before playing golf or going on a long drive. Marijuana sharpens nothing. It dulls the senses and impedes reaction times, or so I am told. You don’t use marijuana before you do something. You use it after you have done something.

This unfortunate story feels similar to the NCAA’s stranglehold over college athletes. The college “plantation” system did not allow athletes to benefit monetarily from their name, image, or likeness. This finally has changed. In a similar vein, the WADA and the IOC control the lives of Olympic athletes, many of whom are black. This will change also, but probably not in time for Sha’Carri Richardson. We will all be deprived of watching her flaming red hair race down the Olympic track.