HIGHER, FASTER, STRONGER ... AND HIGHER

The list of chemicals anti-doping officials look for when testing
high-performance athletes is long and varied. Substances ranging from
potent illegal steroids to many common cold medications are banned,
and athletes found with even minute levels of these drugs in their
systems face incredibly harsh penalties, including suspension,
punishment and the revoking of medals and titles, not to mention the
damage done to the reputation of an athlete who is branded as a drug cheat.

This uncompromising punitive approach is justified by the noble goal
of protecting the purity of sport and preventing the cheats from
gaining an advantage over athletes that follow the rules and remain
clean. Few athletes, officials or spectators would ever argue that
competitors trying to gain an edge by using illegal and potentially
dangerous steroids or other capability-increasing drugs ought not be
exposed and severely punished.

But when it comes to substances that do not seem to have any
performance enhancing qualities-chiefly marijuana-there is growing
debate among anti-doping officials.

"Get out of the social drug scene," Joanne Mortimore, CEO of
Athletics Canada, told CBC News. "Let's stick on high performance
drugs and not bother with [marijuana]."

Her comments echo sentiments expressed by sport and government
representatives from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom who
recently called for an end to testing athletes for pot use.

Joseph de Pencier of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, which
handles the testing of athletes in Canada, agrees with the idea in
theory, although he warns that getting the worldwide athletics
community on board with the proposal might be difficult.

"I don't think it's a fight that Canada and some other countries are
going to win about getting cannabis off the list altogether," he told
the CBC. "I think we're just whistling in the wind on that one."

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the highest-profile athlete who ever faced
punitive action for testing positive for cannabis agrees that the ban
on marijuana ought to be ended.

"There's no real reason for it to be on the list in the first place,"
1998 Olympic gold medalist Ross Rebagliati told Vue from Whistler,
where he is currently training in hopes of competing at the 2010 Olympics.

"I think that the IOC [International Olympic Committee] and everybody
else related to the list of banned substances is mainly concentrating
on maintaining a fair and level playing field for everybody," he
continued. "There's no evidence to suggest that marijuana is in any
way a performance enhancing drug, so they're really kind of, in my
mind and in the minds of a lot of people, over-stepping the
boundaries from fair play into social activities that are irrelevant."

While Rebagliati deftly deflected questions about his own use of
marijuana, he emphasized that, regardless of the morality or legality
of smoking pot, its prohibition in sport misses the point of testing
athletes for drugs.

"There shouldn't be anything else involved in [drug testing] other
than to make it fair for the other athletes," he insisted. "It's not
a social thing, it's not to check if you're a good person or a bad person.

"It's fair for the other athletes," Rebagliati added. "That's the whole point."