NBA'S GRASS IS GREENER

The sleeping dog should have been left alone. Now the NBA and its players'
union have been bitten in the hind end by an absolute mutt of an issue. It
serves them both right. The issue is marijuana use in the NBA.

For the first time the NBA is testing for marijuana -- and not just
players, but coaches, team officials and league personnel, right up to and
including commissioner David Stern.

Several days ago, Mike Wise of the New York Times discovered the identity
of players who had tested positive but for several good reasons the
newspaper did not name names. The discovery however, and the ensuing
confidentiality issue, drove a wedge between the league and the players'
association leaving a degree of ill will that had not been seen since the
days of last season's lockout. After a six-day break, testing resumed
yesterday.

Non of this is the Times' fault. Rather, it's precisely what the league and
the union signed up for when they opened the issue during negotiations.
What is unfathomable is why either side bothered.

Everywhere else in society -- north and south of the border -- social
morals finally are catching up to common sense. Marijuana use widely is
accepted as something other than the depraved habit of the lunatic/criminal
fringe. Politicians actually are reaping "I'm too hip" marks by admitting,
or flirting with the admission, they have inhaled. See Health Minister
Allan Rock -- who additionally recently announced the approval of marijuana
use for medicinal purposes.

Police departments, which know nuisance work when they see it, routinely
look the other way on possession offences. Socialites, particularly in
British Columbia, brag about the quality of their basement-grown stash.

Yet the NBA, convulsed by a fit of antediluvian puritanism that would do
the too-fanatical U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency proud, pushed hard for
marijuana testing during the collective bargaining process last summer. The
union decided it could exact concessions by taking up the debate.

The NBA usually seeks to position itself on the edge of a cultural wave,
but in this case it sits square on a social ethos in effect when the
Toronto Huskies first took to the floor in 1946. Worse, the league was
pushed there by incessant prodding from sports reporters, too many of whom
seem intent on proving wrong the Republicans' battle cry that the U.S.
media is often too far to the left.

In exchange for agreeing to testing for marijuana, LSD, amphetamines and
steroids -- in the past, players were tested only for cocaine and heroin --
and expanding the program to all players rather than just rookies, the
players' association exacted some concessions.

The testing program was to maintain confidentiality, encourage treatment
and counseling rather than punishment. It also was expanded to include team
and league personnel.

The program, however well-intentioned, is full of problems as are all
programs of its kind.

The NBA has demonized marijuana and left alone the social drugs of alcohol
and nicotine, which are at least as harmful as marijuana and possibly more so.

If the rationale for the new testing program is that the league is
concerned about the public damage done by having its players caught in
marijuana offences, then it again misses the point. People no longer care
if someone is booked on a marijuana charge and particularly not the NBA's
baby-boomer audience. A pot offence reflects more on the pernicious,
outdated nature of the laws and rules governing marijuana, not to mention
the enforcement agencies, than it does on the individual. See Ross Rebagliati.

"(Testing) affects (only) the people who are worried about drug testing,"
said Vancouver Grizzlies forward Cherokee Parks, who grew up in the hippie
neighbourhood of Huntington Beach, Calif.

Worse, the issue has trampled all over people whose rights should not have
become a bargaining chip.

"I don't know how we got lumped in there," Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy was
quoted in the Times as saying. "I don't think it's necessary. I think it's
an infringement of people's rights. It's not about hiding things. It's
about civil liberties slowly disappearing."

What it is about is common sense disappearing. The league should not have
pushed for marijuana testing. And the union shouldn't have taken up the
discussion.

But they did. And their inevitable reward has arrived: Controversy.