In the world of professional, semi-pro or even varsity sports, bans on all types of drugs are becoming more and more strict-including bans on marijuana.

Marijuana is commonly referred to as a 'gateway drug.' During use, sensory receptors in the user's brain are stimulated, causing their activities to change. The areas of the brain that are primarily affected deal with "pleasure, memory, thought, concentration, sensory and time perception and coordinated movement" (Marijuana.com). It is also known that the effects of pot on a person's sensory or time perception and coordination are generally negative, because perception is slowed and coordination is decreased (two things that almost all elite level athletes work towards improving). This is why bans on marijuana use in elite athletes are useless; if you want to perform your best, it is doubtful that you would take a substance that could make this more difficult.

Drug testing in sanctioned sports is designed to monitor and fight doping in all its forms, according to the World Anti-Doping Agency website. Doping regulations are also designed to regulate drugs meeting any two of the following three criteria: they enhance performance, pose a threat to athlete's health and/or violate the spirit of sport.

Then why is pot listed as a specified substance on the WADA list of prohibited substances? Pot use is actually shown to reduce athletic ability because it slows your reaction time. Having quick reaction time is critical to most sports because the faster athlete has better chance of beating his or her opponent. Thus if marijuana reduces your reaction time while you are under its influence, then it does not enhance ability but rather reduces it. If enhanced performance is the key issue, then pot should never be banned.

I say, why not let athletes smoke pot if they so choose? If you decide to smoke pot while you are in competition, then you are really only hurting yourself and giving 'the other guy' a better chance. The effects of pot are more detrimental then beneficial in terms of athletic performance therefore a ban on marijuana should not even be needed. If you choose to smoke pot before a game, then you are basically taking yourself out of the game in most cases.

Also, the effects of smoking pot truly only last for approximately 1-8 hours, depending on the amount smoked (though this varies greatly, depending on the method of ingestion and the amount you use normally). It is estimated that it would have the greatest effect on your sporting performance for one and a half to four hours. To drug tests, this doesn't matter, because marijuana can stay in your system for about a month-meaning that you could smoke pot twenty-seven days before competing and not feel any effects from it, but if you were drug tested, you would test positive. If a concern for other competitors is in question, then marijuana can be banned during competition, but recreational use on your own time should not be relevant.

Rather than focusing on substances that have little, if any, effect on athletic performance, doping agencies should be concerned with research and education about performance enhancing drugs like steroids.

These are the drugs that enhance performance and are dangerous to use. The use of pot by athletes does not need to be monitored any more closely than pot use by anyone else; in sports, there are much bigger drugs to smoke out.

2004 H.U.M.A.N.: Hemp Users Medical Access Network - Toronto Medical Marijuana