The NCAA, in an attempt to adjust its testing practices to modern science, has adjusted the threshold for which a positive marijuana test is considered an adverse finding at their NCAA Championship meets.
Specifically, they have lowered the level from 15 nanograms per milliliter to 5 nanograms per milliliter, meaning that only one-third the level of marijuana in an athlete’s urine would trigger a positive test.
The rationale from the Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports (CSMAS), who voted on the measure in December, is that current testing technology had advanced to the point to warrant lowering the threshold. The concern of having a threshold above zero is the need to accurately identify intentional use of marijuana without trapping those exposed to second-hand smoke.
Marijuana use and its danger, or lack thereof, is currently a very heated discussion in American society, as there is a strong movement to push for its legalization (and in many jurisdictions, that has happened, sort-of). While a discussion on that is outside the scope of this NCAA decision, what is within the scope is the NCAA’s belief that the use of street drugs violates WADA’s goal of maintaining the sanctity of the sport.
“Marijuana is illegal from the federal government perspective, and it is still not clear how the state-federal dialogue will play out, NCAA Chief Medical Officer Brian Hainline said of the decision. ”That being said, the World Anti-Doping Agency lists three reasons for drug testing in sport: (1) to prevent cheating through the use of performance-enhancing substances and methods; (2) to deter athletes from ingesting substances that may harm the athlete’s health; and (3) to deter athletes from ingesting substances or engaging in doping methods that are contrary to the spirit of sport. Whereas the CSMAS rightly focused on the fact that marijuana and other street drugs are not performance enhancing, the committee also recognizes that the universe of sport is special, and the student-athlete is obliged to embrace the spirit of sport. We do not believe that student-athletes should be ingesting marijuana and other street drugs, and we believe that a combination of penalties coupled with behavioral intervention is the most balanced approach to this issue.”
Hainline also discussed that the consensus reached by the CSMAS is that marijuana is not performance enhancing, which is a key to future potential regulation on the topic in sport.
The penalty for the first positive test in the NCAA, which only tests directly at its championship and bowl events, is a one-year suspension plus a loss of one year of eligibility. A second test results in a second year if it is a street drug, or a permanent ban if it is a PED. NCAA member institutions frequently conduct their own tests, however; while the results of these tests are usually unreleased by law, anecdotal evidence would speak that it’s not uncommon for college athletes to test positive, with different levels of punishment by their specific programs, depending on the circumstances.
The threshold for WADA (aka, USA Swimming events) remains at 15 nanograms per milliliter. The NCAA’s official guideline is that marijuana can show in a person’s urinalysis up to a month after usage, sometimes more for a chronic user. There is at least one reported case of a collegiate diver, former USC All-American Harrison Jones, testing positive in a USADA case and getting suspended
Hainline answered a number of questions about marijuana usage very frankly; if you have further interest in the topic, we encourage you to read that Q & A here. Those on either side of the issue should be able to appreciate Hainline’s and the NCAA’s honesty on the issue.
Shoot. Luckily they only test at NCAAs.
haha great name
seems like really bad news for Water Polo.
Is the spokesman’s name really Brian Hairline? Man, I feel bad for him.
I think the NCAA should stick to policing the sport and stay out of the personal lives of its athletes. Let the schools worry about “behavioral intervention” If it isn’t performance enhancing or creating an unfair advantage then it isn’t their business.
The news accompanies the announcement that the NCAA will soon include a new sport: Dorito-eating.
oh yeah cuz smoking weed really helps your performance!
Although I am not against the use of marijuana I understand what they are doing. As long as the drug is illegal I believe it should be tested for. These athletes are representing our country and our colleges. They are being watched by everyone so they need to make smart decisions. Often times when college aged kids are doing drugs they are not in the safest environment. Drug tests are a way to help them stay on track. When you are a star athlete at your university it is pretty easy to get side tracked by all the fame and the things that come with it.
I totally agree – all potential illegal behavior should fall under the NCAA’s purview. Crossing guards should be installed at all NCAA championship events – if any athletes jaywalk on their way to the event, they can’t compete. All athletes should also have to install special software on their computers that’ll monitor if they pirate music or watch illegal streams of movies. Three strikes and you lose your scholarship; no excuses!
I cannot imagine why anyone would smoke weed before a championship meet. Good for NCAA.
if it worked for michael phelps it must work for me! hahaha. nowconcerned swimmer: half of the ncaa is now deficating their pants. new pants are against the ncaa rules this late in the season. guess you gotta stick with your soiled drawers.
ok ok ok enough ranting. i mean, marijuana use does exacerbate psychological problems in people and athletes are particulary suseptable
It’s the Athlete’s choice to put whatever he or she wants into his or her body as long as it doesn’t give him or her an unfair edge in the sport. As a NCAA Division III swimmer I find it extremely irritating that I can’t vaporize my herb and still swim. Michael Phelps smoked too, and if there aren’t any negative effects of the substance why is it even illegal to start with? All it does is propagate violent crime and gangs because instead of being regulated and taxed by the federal government it is in control of the black market dealers. The only one it would be hurting if it was legal (if anyone) is the user if used irresponsibly. People aren’t all idiots, give us some damn trust and respect for doing just as well or even better while still smoking pot.
If the Division III school you’re at isn’t a small, liberal arts/hippie school I’ll eat my hat.
You’d be very surprised to learn that virtually every top swimmer indulges in marijuana when out of competition. Well, on the men’s side at least. Girls shop. And do yoga. Possibly other things too, but we’ll never know, or care. But backbon topic, many guys do so on a fairly consistent basis. Truuust me.
Oh most definitely. But that comment just reeked of birkenstocks and hemp bracelets.
Haha most definitely
personally I think creatine is a lot worse (in terms of more of less cheating because of the fact that it can help improve performance) than marijuana (which I kind of just lump into the same category as alcohol)
@ Bad System – Creatine is a naturally occurring substance in meat. It’s also something your body makes on its own. Supplementing with it is not performance enhancing any more than taking a multivitamin.
And to all the people saying Michael Phelps smoked, so it should be alright – c’mon. Think for yourselves. NCAA student-athletes are still kids (I’m recently out of college and STILL don’t consider myself a full adult) and as such sometimes need a little nudge to remind them what’s good for them.
Thats what I am saying! It isn’t a debate about whether pot should be legal or not it is the fact that it is currently illegal so no swimmer should have it in their system.
In several places in the US it is not illegal. In many other places it is legal when prescribed. Get out more
So you, JP, who are “recently out of college,” yet “STILL don’t consider [your]self a full adult,” would like to be the one to “nudge” and “remind people what is good for them”??? You are a real piece of work. You come into a public forum and presume to be some type of moral authority on a subject you clearly have no grasp of. I hate to think what college allowed you to matriculate on thru graduation; although i noticed you clearly dodged ever saying you graduated from college, just that you are “out of college.”
Further, your knowledge of how creatine and how creatine supplementation works, and it’s dangers, are laughable; especially juxtaposed to your argument against cannabis consumption. Care to explain your theory on why we have naturally occurring cannabinoid receptors in the hippocampus, cerebellum, and basal ganglia areas of our brains?
Or did some pothead steal your girlfriend who you used to stalk around the quad and was totally gonna be the one to take your v-card if only you could talk to her for the first time – next time – and she totally would have been the one if that pothead hadn’t stolen her away, and maybe if you just use an extra three scoops of creatine every day that you’ll get so ripped she’ll notice you and you won’t have to approach her, she’ll approach you and then you can dump your French model girlfriend that you keep telling your “friends” about who lives in Canada and doesn’t own a laptop so she can’t Skype and she was in a car accident and died of leukemia, and if you could just start or at least thoughtlessly join an already existing movement against marijuana then maybe the pothead will be kicked out of school and you won’t have to use your allowance money on that extra creatine and things can be like they were before where the only thing between you and your love will be your crippling social anxiety and, oh yeah, that 100-foot restraining order that she lovingly spent an entire day obtaining at the local courthouse, in order to show you that she is willing to put in the time it takes to make things work after all? That’s more plausible than what you came in here spouting.
How about legally prescribed cannabis? Or hello, did they miss the ballot counts in Colorado and Washington in Novemeber? What business is that of the NCAA? Would it create an unfair recruiting advantage for schools in those states? So many questions, so little faith in the NCAA. But so much weed in my hand. NCAA 0, me 1. Count it
The NCAA stance on Marijuana use is absurd. They have no business policing the personal lives of student-athletes, never mind imposing ridiculous year-long suspensions for drug use. For those who argue that athletes shouldn’t be getting high and should be held to higher standard, I offer the following counterargument: who are you say how dedicated an athlete should be? Who are you to decide when they should be satisfied? Should NCAA athletes be suspended for eating at McDonalds too?
I am an NCAA swimmer who will likely go to nationals this year and I use marijuana all the time (primarily in the form of edibles for health reasons). Realistically, my drug use might lower my 400IM time by .5 seconds this year at the most. And I’m fine with that. That is my choice, and mine alone, to decide what balance I want to have in my life. Even if you think marijuana should be illegal, and you wouldn’t want student-athletes to do use it, that doesn’t make it rational for the NCAA to be policing it. It simply is not their job and there are no pragmatic benefits from them doing so.
Since you’re young and don’t know any better, I’m going to tell it to you like it is.
There is not a single swimming governing body that’s not consumed by power and greed. Your sport, my old sport, is thoroughly corrupt. These organizations do whatever they want, whenever they want, and they do not care about you.
However, there could be a bright side for you if you’re 18 or older. United States Masters Swimming doesn’t test for drugs at all. In fact, they encourage drug use. Why else would they aggressively pursue Lance Armstrong to become a member and compete?
So, have a brownie, sign up for USMS. The organization is corrupt as could be, but they’ll give you lots of love if you pay your dues and don’t ask questions.
This rule really isn’t as big as you guys think. It’s only for testing at the big meet, which is once per year and in which very few athletes will be tested anyway. As long as an athlete hasn’t used for maybe 2 weeks their probably more then fine considering that as athletes it moves through us a lot faster. Just smoke all you want after the big meet and your good.
I do drug screens in the work place quite often. Pot is in the body in some cases 30-45 days after being last consumed. How quick your body eliminates it all depends on how long you’ve been smoking, your body weight, strength of the weed. I’m sort of shocked with some of the comments above – I just don’t believe that many swimmers smoke or consume this illegal drug. I’ve seen the “wildness” of a post nationals party – a lot of drinking for sure but only 1-2 potheads that I knew of.
You must not know a lot of swimmers then… I’d bet if you were to test the major collegiate teams (CAL, Michigan, Stanford, Florida, USC, Texas, Arizona) in the offseason, more than 1 or 2 tests would come back for THC. Being on one of the aforementioned teams, I can personally tell you that in the offseason, about half the team smokes/consumes edibles/vaporizes.
Michael Phelps? Yes.
Ryan Lochte? Yes. Cocaine? Yes(he snorted it off a key at a post nats party at Stanford).
I’m sure there are others out there than can speak to the rest of the national team.
swimfan25 said he did tests in the workplace.
That would lead me to think he wouldn’t meet many swimmers.
Roflstomp,
Easy on the outing of swimmers that (may) use hard drugs like coke – even if it makes you look cool.
Whoa backup. Michael Phelps smokes weed?
But really was the Ryan thing necessary? Also, look up libel, because if you can’t source that claim, aka pictures or reliable(read: will withstand very well-funded cross examination) eyewitness testimony, you’re gonna get sued with a mouth(fingers?) like that.
Okay, I was wrong. There was no reason for me to out anyone. Even if there was picture evidence of him smoking or snorting up (which I don’t have), there is no proof that it is marijuana or cocaine. Ergo, I eat my words. He hasn’t tested positive for anything in competition so I’m wrong.
I never met a diver who didn’t smoke weed. I wonder if they CAN dive without being comfortably numb.
Weed is very common in college athletics as a whole. This rule won’t change anything about how college athletes approach their drug use. I know at my University (a div 1 program even) the very night after we get our test from the NCAA or University there is always a party with drugs. This is just the NCAA making another stupid rule change to a rule nobody pays attention to anyway.
I think that any athlete that tests positive for an ILLEGAL substance should face charges. ILLEGAL means ILLEGAL thus making these athletes no different than common criminals
Alcohol before age 21 is illegal. Are most college aged students criminal then?
Jeez man, put the Nixon biography down.
This is the stupidest comment I have ever read.
Why is that COLLEGE SWIMMER? You do the crime, you do the time. Have you ever heard that before or are you just an ignorant, small minded leftist?
Good troll, but a little overboard Boss. It’s called subtlety. Unless you are serious. In which case, I would urge you to wait til puberty to post/start forming political opinions.
This entire thread of comments makes my head hurt…
Most male swimmers smoke pot and girls do yoga, seriously?!
If MP does it, it’s okay?
Throwing out Lochte’s name as a coke user behind an anonymous handle? Grow a pair you troll…
I’m not going to argue whether or not pot should be legal, but currently it is not across the nation. Regardless if you like everything or nothing the NCAA does, these are privileged athletes, competing for a college is not a universal right. This is part of the deal and if you don’t like it, quit competing or start a petition to the NCAA if marijuana is so important to you.
I have a kid at one of the colleges ROFLSTOMP mentions above right now – there is no way near 1/2 of the team smokes pot in the off season. Bottom line is it is illegal. If Lance is banned for life maybe some of swimming sports “stars” should be too if they are in fact using illegal drugs.
I can only speak from experience. Maybe things have changed in the last three years, but based on what I saw over the 40 year period prior to my exodus from the sport, there was no degree of uncertainty about swimming being riddled with substance abuse.
This is a hypothetical… Your kid would tell you if they smoked pot? After he hits the bong, he is so overcome with guilt that he calls you up and confessed to smoking and then proceeds to tell you all of his teammates that smoke too?
Yes, pot is illegal. So is drinking underage. Did/does your son drink underage? If so, group him in with the criminal pot smokers and ban them from the sport.
To the people who look down on pot smokers-despite what your parents told you when you were a kid, God doesn’t kill a puppy every time you get baked. Before you judge it, try it (do it twice because you don’t actually get high the first time unless you smoke a lot) and then come back and tell us how bad it is.
Just because something feels good doesn’t mean it’s good for you.
Obviously there are a large amount of people who don’t understand this.
Just because something is illegal doesn’t mean it is bad for you. Far more people do not undertand this.
If you are insinuating that cannabis use cannot be safe, healthy, and anything but beneficial if used correctly, then you are the clown at this rodeo. You’re just not a very entertaining clown.
Uh-huh. Because inhaling smoke into your lungs is definitely “safe, healthy and anything but beneficial.” Brilliant.
You don’t have much life experience do you? There are many different ways to use cannabis. One, ONE, of which involves smoking. Why do people insist on jumping up and spotlighting the fact that they are absolutely clueless? It is so counter-intuitive to me. I wouldn’t go on some bible study website and start making claims about that which I know relatively little about. And if I were so inclined to comment, I sure as heck wouldn’t pretend to know what I was talking about, much less be sarcastic in displaying my ignorance.
PD,
“Just because something is illegal doesn’t mean it is bad for you. Far more people do not undertand this.”
Are you implying that pot is good for you? As in any normally function person who doesn’t have a life threatening or terminal illness? Surely you must be joking…
Morphine is used in hospital situation but is illegal outside of that. Allergy meds are restricted to number of doses you can buy per month because of people using it to make illegal drugs at home.
Please, enlighten me as to the things are truly beneficial about pot aside from what I listed above. Remember to site your sources! I’ll make it easy on you, you don’t have to adhere to APA or MLA format in your citations.
If the sport is this “dirty” it needs to be cleaned up. I hope they increase testing year round and STRONGLY punish all that are doing this. End their scholarships, strip their medals, ban them from the sport. Should my kid be one of them – so be it.
How can you be so violently out of touch with reality? Every sport, every school, every group, every social circle(even if yours are probably as big as a hula hoop) has those who consume recreationally. Have you thought that your child lying to you and those you know keeping the truth from your eyes perhaps could be due to your medieval views on the subject? Instead of posting that drivel online, maybe, just maybe, you should be rethinking your apparently stout belief-system(stout enough to publicly encourage banning/arresting athletes for cannabis consumption) and why it doesn’t mesh with reality. It is not this sport, or that state, or this race, or that gender, that is “dirty,” as you put it. It’s everywhere, Cops and judges can be seen at cannabis clubs in Cali. Wake up and smell what’s bakin’
Why so edgy? R-U jonesin’?
Haha hardly edgy. It is tough to see the anti-civil rights types try to foist their particular brand of crazy on others. It is just so wrong. So, so wrong. And very saddening to see. You of all people know what it is like when a significant % of people involved in a group(say USA swimming), choose dissonance over dealing with reality, and then have the audacity to make decisions that affect all, based on their terribly misguided beliefs. And next thing you know they have dictated what will be the status quo, and the argument shifts from right/wrong and reality/fantasy to legal/illegal where anything illegal or against the status quo is bad or wrong or dangerous because why else would it be illegal? Well, because you made it so! Circular jerking the normal people around on a leash.
And I’m never jonesing, I can legally partake all day every day if I choose, and don’t ever lack access.
All of these things you describe are magnified by the leadership of swimming organizations. Each one has its own brand of crazy, but all of them are populated by leaders who are power-hungry control freaks and do not care about their members beyond collecting their money. Swimmers are easy targets. They spend half their lives face-down in the water, and the swimming pool is often much deeper than the thought that goes into what’s going on around them. Since swimming is such a small, insular world, these off-center decisions seem much worse than they really are. Once you get out into the real world, you’ll find more of a normal balance.
I agree with you to a degree. I don’t take swimming and the swimming world too seriously away from the pool/deck, but am well aware of the problems that originate at the top-end of USA swimming, many of the LSCs, and on down to the individual club levels, that unfortunately affect the swimmers and coaches so negatively. Lets just say that out of touch board rooms ruin a lot of organizations, not just swim clubs. I have run into far worse and far better run companies/associations/groups than USA swimming – I worked for Microsoft, enough said. It is hard to see the blood, sweat, and tears put in for years, decades, be cast aside by the worthless decisions of a middle-management type “executive” who snags control of something they have no business coming near. I have a feeling that is what you experienced, and I feel for ya. Cheers
The idiot USMS brought in from NASCAR was just the last episode in a long-running series full of unethical, hostile people, who never had my best interests at heart. My only regret is not seeing it sooner, but there’s much more reason to feel sorry for USMS than me. I’m fine. They aren’t.
As for the NCAA, all swimmers who trade their swimming services for college scholarships are hostages, and the heavy emphasis placed on swimming development causes them to sacrifice much of the benefit of any academic experience the school may be offering. We can feel a little sorry for them, too.
Clearly USMS fell into the trap of thinking that a highly-paid, sought-after executive is some kind of cure all, because of some measure of previous “success” – in this case at NASCAR. Haha that is too funny btw I wouldn’t let the CEO of NASCAR wash my car much less come near leading a company I had an interest in. The heavy, widespread political shift to the right over the last 3 decades has engendered a worship of money and greed, where successful organizations are deemed as such because of their return on investment to share holders, measured solely in dollars and cents. A much better measure would be return on investment to those investing time, energy, and care into an organization, or even return on investment to the society that offered a platform to build the group on to begin with. But god forbid that group – be it a fortune 5, a government, or a swim team – sacrifice profits to fulfill a social responsibility to its members. The members at hand(coaches an swimmers) are screwed by this worship of the bottom-line, that petty, small-minded professional-management types espouse as the only marker of success.
For example, anyone, a monkey, could have made better choices for the members of USA swimming over the past years than Wielgus has. He has made choices that benefit him, and those in his office, at the expense of many, many young children, especially girls. We all know that story. What are people expecting when contract negotiations, before a single act is done on behalf of the org, are akin to extortion. Professional management and middle-men, who haven’t produced a thing in their lives, live on the backs of the people. Somehow, they have managed to convince a huge sub-set of our population(read: pro-business, anti-regulation, small government conservatives) that not only are they necessary, but they are godly.
The problem isn’t unique to USAS or USMS, it is a systemic by-product of a culture of greed and individualism that has blossomed and been nurtured by both shrewd, borderline-evil geniuses, as well as the poor, uneducated masses that they puppeteer.
Good luck finding a group or groups to give your time to that are benevolent, and socially responsible. I know it ain’t easy, but it’s worth it.
I got lucky, or maybe it wasn’t luck. You see, I had other interests. When swimming failed me for the last time, I just went down another path I’d been wanting to go down for a long time. Not only did I discover benevolence and social responsibility, but I landed squarely in the middle of a multi-billion-dollar industry that has thrived throughout the recession. An interesting side note worthy of consideration, my industry is dominated by women.
What I really have to say to NCAA swimmers is, don’t spend a disproportionate amount of time with the sport of swimming. If you’re worried about how many nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood before competition, chances are you’re putting far too much of an investment into an activity that will not pay good career dividends. Your college experience should prepare you for the real world, and if you’re only prepared to swim, you’re really in for a rude awakening, as well as a series of low-paid jobs as a lifeguard and assistant swim coach. If you’re really lucky, like I was, you can be a swimming journalist and still get paid as much as someone who works at Burger King.
Haha very true about the NCAA side. If you are a part of a positive team atmosphere, with a good coach, it is totally worth it. I had a blast at Berkeley, and would do it again in a heartbeat, and my resume wasnt hurt at all. Unfortunately, I know far too many who experienced otherwise at different institutions. I think it boils down to the coach, and his care and attention to detail away from the pool. We used to get reminded all the time to clean our rooms, get ahead in school, and get plenty of sleep on our days off. And we did. Good times. The only negative is I think I took only 2 engineering courses from a worldwide top 3 engineering program, because of time restraints placed on me due to swimming. Still worth it.
You aren’t in the yoga/yoga apparel business or into food blogging are you? Or own a tanning salon? Just kidding…
I never participated in the NCAA, but didn’t feel like I missed out on a strong scholastic swimming experience. High school was actually very much like a collegiate experience. The level of competition was very high, and there was a subculture of swimmers and coaches who had issues with drugs, alcohol, and promiscuity- just like college! Kids grow up even faster today.
When it was time to decide where to go to college, it was my mother who screwed my head on straight. In her mind, the idea of me studying photography at RISD sounded much more promising than four years of swimming in college. She was right.
The sport takes so much time, it is physically draining, and I’d already seen some ugly things that are still part of the sport’s culture. Mom helped me realize swimming in college would compromise my education, and was leading nowhere. What was I going to do for a career? Swim? What things in life would I be preparing for? Swim meets? Being editor of a swimming magazine wasn’t on my radar at the time, because I’d put so much emphasis on swimming in high school, I hadn’t really learned how to write a decent essay by the time I’d graduated. That was another sign.
It’s laughable that there was even a choice to be made. Knowing what I know today, I’d do exactly the same thing, except I wouldn’t mourn the loss of swimming in my life as much. My college education has served me well. What I do now is on my web site if you really want to know. I still use the things I learned in college every single day.
RISD very nice! My sister went to RISD for summer every year during high school. She ended up loving the east coast(we are from Palo Alto), and she attended Swarthmore and then BU for grad school. She bought a place in Boston and one in, yep, Providence. She is young, 31 in May, but did well enough to settle down and retire to her own desires, which are what she learned at RISD – graphic design, studio and performance art.
IMO there is a little bit more to be said for the college swimming experience, but yes, it has its downsides. Again, I wouldn’t do it any other way.
I’ll check out the website.
The funny thing was, most of the people I knew from swimming chose colleges based on how good a match the swim team would be. They went to college to swim. I went to college to learn. You’re right about RISD, by the way. My swimming friends didn’t know what RISD was. They thought I was going to some kind of technical/trade school, like the ones you see advertised on TV.
LOL!
You are on edge about this for sure
My social circle is larger than a hula hoop!! Who knows how large yours is as we all hide behind screen names – we’ll never know but I’d be willing to bet “my circle” has a few that have done pot in the past but maturity has a way of changing your view on many things. I hope you can find “highs” in life without resorting to illegal drug use. If things are like you say in California – perhaps that’s a contributing factor to why that state is about bankrupt. I’ve never smoked pot and never will – it is illegal in the US despite what the voters in California & Colorado voted on in November. The idea that “everyone is doing it” doesn’t make it legal or right.
I’m hardly on edge. Read into comments whatever you want, but you continue to display ignorance beyond all reason. It is laughable to think that California is almost bankrupt, it is easily the richest state in the union, despite bold-faced lies perpetrated by the right wing thinktanks and ran with by the dumbest amongst us. You confuse budget shortfalls with wealth concerns. Quite foolish of you indeed.
Your clear misunderstanding of the balance and relationship between federal and state power and law-making and regulations in this country is astounding. I don’t believe you are a functioning adult, much less a parent of a child(that thought scares me – poor kid). It IS federally acceptable to possess and ingest cannabis in many states in the US(only two without a prescription). The only federal action being taken against cannabis users and distributors is when state laws are broken and/or when, surprise surprise, taxes on the sale of cannabis are not making they’re way to the correct coffers. As long as the taxes are in order, clubs don’t get raided, users and distributors don’t get raided.
Cannabis is not “illegal” because it is harmful. That is a mid-century, extremely antiquated idea. It is a huge money-making scheme by our federal government that keeps cannabis “illegal.” I would hate to think what would happen if the Feds outlawed breathing. We’d all be fine and you’d be dead in 5 minutes.
What I thought was really interesting was that the NCAA found it to be not performance enhancing in any sport. I would think in a sport like platform diving or golf, the calming effects could be viewed as performance-enhancing.
Yes, however, doesn’t it seriously messes up depth perception and delay your reaction time? Can’t imagine a platform diver smoking before jumping from a 3 story building all the while doing several flips and a couple of twists.
This isn’t really going to change anything… the amount and frequency of testing will remain the same. This change will only affect those that are tested when their body has between 5 and 15 nanograms per milliliter. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that most people who are found positive have significantly more than 15 and those that are negative are much lower than 15. The debate about whether its “right” or “moral” or whatever other words you can think of is stupid, because at the end of the day it doesn’t actually matter what you do unless you are tested AND fall between 5 and 15 which has got to be highly unlikely.
You bring up interesting points, Ben. I’ve reached out to a few experts on both drug testing and marijuana to see what their thoughts are on what exactly the change from 15 to 5 really means. Will have a follow-up when I hear back from someone.
any news? Seems like drugs either in this thread or the china one cause quite an internet stir…
Well, if you don’t want to research on your own, I can tell you that in California, for example, the threshold for violating probation and parole is 50 or 55 ng/ml. Many counties have bumped it up to 55, due to courts ruling in favor of defendants claiming false positives. For example, if one were to accidentally take a bite of a baked good containing strong hash(oil), and even spit it out, they would more than likely test above the 5 and 15 ng/ml threshold. If one were to hang out in a smokey room, you are looking at easily above the 5 and probably the 15. It is a joke of a level. I tested at levels above 1000 for a while as a teenager. With what we have access to nowadays, it is not at all uncommon. In fact, a few months after winning section in a few events, one week after winning JOs in water polo, and a few weeks before popping a 1600 on my SATs I tested at over 1500 ng/ml. I guess the lesson is dont dip your blunts in hash oil. Or do. More than one way to skin a cat. It’s not “the devil weed” like many think. Better for you, your health, and especially your brain, than alcohol. No contest.