THE SEARCH FOR A JOINT RESOLUTION

Marijuana Use In All Sports, But Detection Is Inconsistent

As controversy surrounding alleged marijuana use by players swirls around
the Mets, baseball officials have embraced a familiar mantra: We're just a
reflection of society.

The same words were spoken a few years ago by Billy Hunter, executive
director of the NBA players association, when that league was confronted
with reports of extensive marijuana use among its players.

But the focus on marijuana, the furor and the rationalizations obscure a
more important point: If it's not pot, it'll be something else.

Last month, steroids were in the limelight as baseball grappled with drug
testing during its labor negotiations. Now it's the Mets and marijuana.
Next ...

"Clearly, it underscores a broader issue: If it's marijuana today, it's
another drug tomorrow," said Long Island physician Gary Wadler, an expert
on drug use in sports who serves on the Health and Medical Research
Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency. "To limit our discussion of drug
use in baseball to steroids is burying our heads in the sand and pretty
deeply. There will be another drug du jour down the road."

Reports about marijuana use among the Mets, Wadler said, "really call into
play the comprehensiveness of the drug-testing policy in baseball and how
the new agreement has dealt with that."

When players and owners agreed last month to establish Major League
Baseball's first drug-testing program, the only banned substance listed was
steroids. Besides raising eyebrows, the agreement underscored the different
ways various sports organizations have dealt with drugs and, in particular,
with marijuana, which enjoys an unusual status - illegal but not
performance-enhancing, and socially acceptable by many.

The NHL has the simplest policy: no drug testing at all. The only
exception, NHL spokesman Frank Brown said, is that players who have turned
themselves in to the league's substance- abuse and behavioral-health
program are tested as part of their aftercare. Drug testing never has been
a bone of contention during labor negotiations.

The NFL, which has had a spate of recent cases of player involvement with
marijuana, began testing for marijuana and other drugs in 1987. Under
guidelines refined in 1994, players are tested once between May and July. A
positive test subjects the players to random testing, usually for the rest
of their careers, and sends them into counseling. A second positive results
in a four-game suspension without pay, and a third positive test means a
minimum one-year suspension.

Steelers offensive tackle Marvel Smith, Browns players Mike Sellers and
Lamar Chapman, Eagles defensive back Terrence Carroll and Panthers wide
receiver Muhsin Muhammad were arrested for possession of marijuana in
separate incidents in the last 10 months alone. Former Cowboys star Nate
Newton pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute marijuana in April; he
still awaits trial in another case in which 213 pounds of marijuana were
found in his truck.

Marijuana use has been most problematic in the NBA. Former Knicks forward
Charles Oakley recently estimated that more than 50 percent of the league's
players use marijuana. A report published in the New York Times in 1997 put
the number between 60 and 70 percent.

Among the dozens of NBA players who have had legal or league disciplinary
problems stemming from marijuana use or possession are Chris Webber, Damon
Stoudamire, Allen Iverson, Marcus Camby, Isaiah Rider, Lamar Odom, Cliff
Robinson, Keon Clark and Maurice Taylor. Former WNBA All-Star Brandy Reed
was arrested on possession charges in June.

The resulting negative publicity helped prompt the NBA Players Association
to agree in 1999 to add marijuana to the list of banned substances under
the league's testing program. One positive test requires a player to enter
the league's substance-abuse program. A second positive carries a $15,000
fine, and every positive result thereafter carries a mandatory five-game
suspension. Critics have charged the effectiveness of the test was lessened
when the league informed players when to expect the tests.

"They let us know about it, so it shouldn't be a problem," then-Knicks
forward John Wallace said at the time. "It's just a matter of doing what
you have to do to make sure that when the time comes, you're right."

There were few surprises when NBA commissioner David Stern trumpeted the
fact that the first preseason testing in 1999 produced only 12 positive
results from 430 players.

The NCAA leaves drug testing up to individual schools, 48 percent of which
have instituted such a program. Of those schools that do testing, 90
percent test for marijuana. The NCAA does its own random drug testing at
selected championships, including nearly every Division I championship.

The Olympic movement, which has conducted full-scale drug testing since
1972, did not begin to test for marijuana until the Winter Games in Nagano
in 1998. It was there that Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati was
stripped of his gold medal after testing positive for marijuana; Rebagliati
blamed second-hand smoke. The medal was restored when Olympic officials
said there had been no prior written agreement regarding testing for
marijuana, which at that time was considered a restricted, but not
prohibited, substance. No one has tested positive for marijuana at the
Summer Games.

Outside the Olympic Games, testing is done by each sport's international
federation, some of which do not include marijuana on their list of
prohibited substances. Three male U.S. gymnasts tested positive for
marijuana in an unannounced, out-of-competition test in January and
received "severe warnings" from the International Gymnastics Federation.
Any subsequent positive test could result in a suspension of up to two
years, the federation said.

Although accounts of marijuana use in professional sports are mostly
anecdotal, there is evidence from the college ranks to suggest that
marijuana use is widespread.

According to the NCAA's latest study of substance abuse, more than 27
percent of college athletes reported that they use marijuana. Rates of use
vary widely among sports.

Football, baseball and men's basketball hovered around the average - 27.3
percent for football players, 26.9 percent for baseball and 23.6 percent
for basketball. The highest rates of marijuana use were in women's skiing
(60.8 percent), men's water polo (57.5) and men's lacrosse (47.9); the
lowest rates were in women's fencing (10.0), women's gymnastics (13.5) and
women's track and field (16.4). The survey, which was released in 2001,
included responses from more than 21,000 athletes.

The survey also suggested that the problem of marijuana use begins before
college. More than three-quarters (78.5 percent) of the college athletes
who smoke marijuana said they began using the drug before they entered
college. Earlier this week, U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona said that
one out of five eighth-graders has tried marijuana, double the rate of 10
years ago.

One of the elements surrounding marijuana use among athletes is that it is
not a performance-enhancing drug. Marijuana reduces hand-eye coordination
and reaction time, reduces motor coordination, impairs concentration and
distorts time, Wadler said. And marijuana continues to affect the system 24
hours after it is used.

"If you're doing a joint the night before a game, you're negatively
impacting your performance," Wadler said, "especially something with
hand-eye coordination and something with tracking ability, like following a
96 mile-per-hour fastball. If it's used in a parking lot between ballgames,
that's a particular problem."