OFFICIAL ACCUSES REBAGLIATI OF LYING ABOUT POT HABIT

The smoke has thickened in the marijuana mystery surrounding snowboarder
Ross Rebagliati after the head of the medical panel of the International
Olympic Committee (IOC) accused the gold medalist of lying about when he
smoked his last joint.

Prince Alexandre de Merode claimed yesterday in Nagano that Mr. Rebagliati
had had ``unusually high'' levels of marijuana in his urine in December
tests.

``I've concluded he (Mr. Rebagliati) didn't stop smoking (marijuana), like
he has said, in April 1997,'' Mr. de Merode stated.

He said the IOC medical commission received a confidential report from an
IOC-accredited laboratory in Montreal, showing 90 to 120 nanograms of
marijuana metabolites per millilitre in his urine.

Mr. Rebagliati responded to the accusation in a press release issued last
night: ``I stand by my earlier statement that I have not smoked marijuana
since April of 1997 and was subjected to second-hand smoke at a party in
January. I feel that the matter was handled properly by the authorities the
first time around and I'm in total agreement with the International Olympic
Committee that this is a closed case.''

Mr. de Merode's remarks -- essentially calling Mr. Rebagliati a liar -- set
Olympic critics abuzz over what they describe as the cesspool of politics
in sport's highest governing body. And questions are being raised about
exactly how Mr. de Merode got his hands on what he says is proof that Mr.
Rebagliati smoked cannabis more recently than he admitted.

``They (IOC officials) have egg on their face,'' Mark Rebagliati, Ross's
father, said in an interview with the Citizen yesterday from Whistler, B.C.
``I find it quite incredible that, I guess in his (Mr. de Merode's)
desperate attempt to salvage credibility that he has lost, he is now trying
to discredit Ross -- or shall I say further discredit him.''

He criticized Mr. de Merode for making a confidential report public, and
wondered how it came into his possession in the first place.

``Ask him where his ethics are.''

The IOC briefly stripped Mr. Rebagliati of his gold medal after he was
found to have 17.8 nanograms per millilitre on race day, only slightly more
than the 15-nanogram limit allowed by his sport's governing body. At that
time, he said he hadn't smoked marijuana since April, and that the traces
in his urine came from a going-away party in Whistler just before the
Olympics.

Mr. de Merode had said the Rebagliati case was closed. But his announcement
again pried open the lid on the issue.

``There is no making sense of what's being said in Nagano,'' said Victor
Lachance, chief executive of the Ottawa-based Canadian Centre for Ethics in
Sports.

The IOC's handling of the entire case has been rife with misinformation,
and some IOC officials voted when they were in conflict of interest, Mr.
Lachance said.

``If ever there was proof of the need for completely independent doping
systems at the Olympics, this is it. There is no accountability.''

It is possible, Mr. Lachance speculated, that Mr. de Merode is also
attempting to do some damage control in Japan, which is strongly against
drug use.

The IOC ``has left the host country in a difficult situation'' by not
punishing marijuana use among athletes, he said.

So how did Mr. de Merode, who is crusading to ban marijuana from the
Olympics, apparently obtain a ``confidential report'' on Mr. Rebagliati?
It's a question the IOC official, from Belgium, has yet to answer.

The report was produced by a Montreal drug-testing laboratory called
l'Institut Nationale de Recherche Scientifique -- Sante (INRS). The
independent Centre for Ethics in Sports asked INRS to test Canadian
athletes, including Mr. Rebagliati, in November and December as part of
routine drug checks, Mr. Lachance said.

Soon after, the IOC asked labs around the world to screen their samples for
marijuana use over the past few years. No one outside the IOC was told
about this ``screening program,'' Mr. Lachance said. The Centre for Ethics
only found out about it after the medal had been taken away.

But the tests were scientifically ``blind,'' Mr. Lachance said, meaning the
IOC should still not have known who tested positive and at what quantities.
The screening only tested for a positive or negative presence of cannabis,
and samples were only identified by numbers, he said.

Once Mr. Rebagliati's medal was revoked, the Centre for Ethics asked INRS
to look at the snowboarder's specific results from the screening. The lab
confirmed that he did test for the ``presence'' of marijuana in November
and December. But lab technicians couldn't say whether it was proof of
actual use or of second-hand exposure because they had no specific
quantities to look at, Mr. Lachance said.

It is possible that a scientist looking at the screen results could have
``extrapolated'' to determine whether the test was over or under accepted
limits of marijuana levels, Mr. Lachance said. If that was done, it would
be unethical, he said, adding that extrapolating even further in order to
get actual quantities would then weaken scientific validity.