DRUG-TESTING IDITAROD MUSHERS? OK, BUT NO PSYCH SCREENING

There's a fair argument that anyone who signs up to run the Iditarod
sled dog race should be drug-tested. It could be one of those "red
flags" that something is amiss. Say, "I want to drive a dog team 1,100
miles across Alaska's frozen wilderness to Nome," and the reaction
might well be, "You need help."

Now mushers will have to undergo testing to make sure they're as clean
as the driven snow when they ride the runners.

Three-time champion Lance Mackey, who has twice won the Yukon Quest
and Iditarod in the same year, has a medical marijuana user's card and
says he's smoked on the trail. He scoffs at the testing plan but says
he'll mush by the rules and won't seek a therapeutic exemption.

Some may find Mackey's marijuana use disturbing. Others may want a
shot at what he's smoking.

During the Civil War some complained to President Lincoln about the
alleged drinking of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Lincoln supposedly replied,
"If it [drink] makes fighting men like Grant, then find out what he
drinks, and send my other commanders a case!"

There's another fair argument that the race itself is a mind-altering
experience more powerful than most drugs. Sleeplessness, cold,
relentless need to care for dogs, fierce competition, lost trails and
busted sleds all conspire to rob a musher of his faculties. "Lies or
delirium" is how musher Ernie Baumgartner once described anything a
musher said in the latter stages of the race.

Mushers hallucinate on the trail for a reason, and it has little to do
with anything they're smoking. Sleep deprivation is more dangerous
than marijuana.

Still, there's a sense of inevitability about drug-testing the
drivers. Over the years the Iditarod has become a more regulated race,
better organized, with stiffer qualifications. Dreamers may still
apply, but you have to bring more than dreams and dogs to the starting
line. Once described as a "race without prejudice," open to any
18-year-old with a dog team and the entry fee, now the Iditarod is an
international event with a worldwide following and rigorous standards
for dog care and competence.

Drug use doesn't fit the race's evolving image -- and even runs
counter to the message carried by Mike Williams of Aniak, who made
sobriety one of his reasons for racing. That's a good message to take
up the trail in a state with high incidences of drug and alcohol abuse.

Naturally, the race doesn't need any drug-addled mushers on the trail,
for the sake of both dogs and other mushers. Neither does the race
want the world to see any of its mushers toking up by firelight on
YouTube. Sponsors get skittish.

Mackey has the right attitude. While he makes a libertarian pitch for
Alaska freedom and personal use, he says he'll win the race without
medical marijuana. We wouldn't bet against him.

BOTTOM LINE: The altered state of the Iditarod requires a clear head
and a steady hand.