REEFER MADNESS

Why More Athletes Are Turning on to Marijuana

Damon Stoudamire was arrested for marijuana last year.

The drug that showed up in Tara Zwink's urine in January earned her a
two-year ban from international snowboarding competition.

After finishing seventh in the women's halfpipe at the U.S. Snowboard Grand
Prix in Breckenridge, Colo., Zwink was picked for a random drug test and --
wham -- she got the same penalty she would have for steroids, amphetamines
or other drugs that make athletes bigger, faster, stronger.

But Zwink, a 30-year-old from Government Camp, Ore., did not test positive
for steroids or speed. The drug that will keep Zwink from participating in
competitions sanctioned by the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association is
marijuana.

Forty-seven percent of Americans have smoked pot, according to a recent
Time/CNN poll, up from 31% in 1983; 34% favor legalization, up from 18% in
1986; 80% say adults should be able to use marijuana for medical purposes
and nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for
medical use. But as Americans grow more tolerant of marijuana, the sports
world is heading in the opposite direction.

Athletes caught smoking pot are not simply petty offenders, as the laws in
most states define them. They are also disgraced role models, marketing
liabilities and now, according to a burgeoning group of anti-doping
advocates, they're cheaters as well. Many experts believe marijuana can
enhance performance and are pushing to extend pot testing to all sports, not
just the handful that screen for it now.

This weekend in Lausanne, Switzerland, physicians affiliated with the World
Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) are compiling a standardized banned list for the
2004 Olympics, and are hotly debating whether all Olympians should be tested
for pot.

WADA president Dick Pound advocates taking the testing issue even further,
encouraging the U.S. pro leagues, especially those that send athletes to the
Olympics, to follow his agency's guidelines.

But the real debate is in Olympic sports, where there is a big push for
uniform testing and punishment. In March, the representatives of 73 national
governments and 65 sports federations agreed to a global anti-doping policy
that includes uniform testing procedures and punishments. The policy is
expected to be in place in time for the 2004 Olympics.

WADA is attempting to replace the hodgepodge of rules that allow governing
bodies such as the Federation de Ski, the International Gymnastics
Federation and the swimming federation, to test for pot, while the
international federations for track and field, soccer and basketball do not.

The WADA subcommittee, comprised of five physicians, including Gary Wadler
of Long Island, have established criteria for placement on the banned list
that includes whether a substance endangers health, violates the spirit of
sport, or enhances performance. There is no question in the mind of Larry
Bowers, the senior managing director of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, that
marijuana can enhance performance by soothing nerves and giving some
athletes an edge before they compete.

"One of the affects of marijuana is that it removes inhibitions," says
Bowers. "It makes (athletes) not afraid of going down a 45-degree hill doing
triple flips."

Gen X athletes such as Bob Burnquist, one of the world's best skateboarders,
and his girlfriend, Jen O'Brien, a top female skateboarder, openly advocate
the legalization of marijuana while admitting that it helps them deal with
the pressures of their sport. "A lot of skateboarders use marijuana for
relaxation," says O'Brien, who appeared on the cover of High Times magazine
holding a marijuana bud. "I think it's better than popping Vicodin or Valium
or drinking alcohol."

Steven Ungerleider, an Oregon psychologist who has advised college, pro and
Olympic teams on drug issues, says gymnasts, divers, football players and
basketball players have told him they smoke before they play. "They say it
takes the edge off, so they can focus on the game," Ungerleider says.

But Ross Rebagliati, the Canadian snowboarder whose gold medal was briefly
yanked after he tested positive during the 1998 Nagano Olympics, says they
are blowing smoke. "If you're being watched by the international media and
millions of viewers around the world," Rebagliati says, "marijuana won't
make you relax. It will make you feel anxious and paranoid."

Wadler agrees, saying pot impairs coordination and concentration. "Just
because athletes think pot helps performance doesn't mean it does," he says.

Allen St. Pierre of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
Laws says the standards for determining whether pot enhances performance are
vague and difficult to measure and are a result of the lobbying of marijuana
opponents.

"This is the American government's anti-drug pathology being transferred to
the Olympic movement," St. Pierre says.

Marijuana has long been a part of competitive sports, hailed by its users as
a mellow alternative to other drugs, including alcohol. From 1989 to 2001,
the NCAA found its athletes used ever-decreasing amounts of alcohol,
cocaine, steroids, amphetamines, even cigarettes. But marijuana use stayed
steady, even though athletes busted for marijuana face penalties far beyond
what the law allows. (In New York, for instance, possession of 25 grams or
less of pot gets you a $100 fine and no jail, while a first-offense DUI
calls for a fine of between $300-$500, or 15 days in a county jail, and in
New York City, forfeiture of the vehicle.) Their teams pay a price, too,
which is why the men and women who write checks in professional sports want
drugs out of it.

A Daily News review of court and arrest records found an average of 30
college and professional athletes arrested for marijuana possession or
distribution for each of the past three years.

"It's huge and goes well beyond the cost of the tickets and the fines," says
Dean Bonham, a sports marketing consultant and former president of the
Denver Nuggets, of marijuana in sports. "It goes to fan attitudes, it
affects ticket sales and merchandising and concessions and advertising."

So what have more testing, more counseling and more awareness about
marijuana brought to sports? "Smarter users," says former NBA player and
coach John Lucas. "Once they pass the test, they do whatever they do."

Unless the athlete is former Dallas Cowboy Nate Newton, lugging 213 pounds
of pot in the back of his van, the legal cost of a minor marijuana bust is
negligible.

Newton was sentenced to five years in Louisiana for trafficking, but the
average athlete who is arrested for possessing a small amount is usually hit
with a fine of up to $1,000 and no jail time.

But that doesn't mean the costs in sports aren't sometimes devastating.
Because of his positive test in Nagano, Rebagliati can't travel to the U.S.
unless he receives special permission from the government, even though he
has not been convicted of a crime. "I can't visit my mother in California, I
can't drive to Mexico to surf," says Rebagliati, who blames the whole
controversy on second-hand smoke. "Ozzy Osbourne has dinner at the White
House, and I'm not even allowed to cross the border."

One baseball general manager says he doesn't really care what a player does
in his hotel room as long as it does not affect performance, but that the
real problem is perception. "When a guy gets caught, that's when it's a
problem," he says.

The Mets had an especially embarrassing series of episodes last season,
starting with pitcher Mark Corey's seizure after he smoked marijuana with
Tony Tarasco. Later in the season an article in Newsday said there was
rampant use in the team's system, showing a 1998 photo of pitcher Grant
Roberts with a bong. The Mets vehemently denied the charge, but the damage
was done. Just the appearance of a problem turned a poor season into a joke
that no one in the organization found funny, possibly even costing manager
Bobby Valentine his job.

Owner Fred Wilpon has ordered his employees not to discuss the subject.

When Damon Stoudamire and Rasheed Wallace did their best Cheech & Chong
impersonation, getting arrested for pot possession last year in Stoudamire's
yellow Hummer, the team was thrown into turmoil and general manager Bob
Whitsitt apologized to fans on behalf of owner Paul Allen.

"This is embarrassing, it's disappointing, it's frustrating," said Whitsitt.
"I'm sure we've got a lot of angry fans." "It's a real public relations
problem," says sports marketing consultant Marc Ganis. "My God, how many
Letterman jokes were there about the Mets after that? It also tends to
exacerbate pre-existing perceptions. If the Mets were viewed as an
underachieving team you start to wonder, does it stem from a lack of
discipline? For a team it sends a terrible message."

Reactions also seem to depend on the nature of the sport involved.
Snowboarder Rebagliati became more famous after his positive test, but
baseball, basketball, football and hockey all have close ties with
traditional, conservative corporations, including beer companies.

Baseball has three stadiums -- Miller Park, Busch Stadium and Coors Field --
named for those companies. Marijuana's counter-culture image does not appeal
to the blue chips. The bottom line, Bonham says, is that marijuana is
illegal.

"Corporate America is about selling products and services to the masses," he
says. "Breaking the law in any form is inconsistent with that. I think the
use of marijuana is a huge risk for athletes who have any interest at all in
endorsement opportunities."