Bellatrix

U.S. sprinter gets warning after positive marijuana test

Monday, August 9, 2004

From SFGate.com.

(08-09) 12:56 PDT COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) --

U.S. Olympic sprinter Bernard Williams was formally warned Monday by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for testing positive for marijuana at a meet in Spain two months ago.

The drug is considered a minor offense under International Association of Athletics Federations rules. A second minor offense would result in a two-year suspension from the sport.

Bellatrix; why this distinction? Is it because the IAAF recognizes (unlike certain governments) that marijuana is not a hard drug? Or is it because they don't see marijuana as a performance enhancer?

Williams was disqualified from his second-place finish in the 200 at the meet June 5 in Seville, but he remains qualified for Olympic competition.

Williams, who won a gold medal for running in a preliminary round in the 400-meter relay at the Sydney Olympics, was third in the 200 at last month's U.S. Olympic trials, finishing behind Shawn Crawford and Justin Gatlin.

He was the U.S. champion at 100 meters last year and ran on the gold medal 400-meter relay team at the 2003 worlds in Paris. Williams was part of a 1-2-3 U.S. sweep in the 100 at the 2001 worlds in Edmonton, finishing behind Maurice Greene and Tim Montgomery.

Bellatrix;Williams seems like a pretty competent athlete. Perhaps they IAAF should classify marijuana as a performance enhancer - it certainly isn't slowing him down! Where are all those rabid prohibitionists screaming about how pot makes you lethargic?

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smoking_joe_lee

"A second MINOR offense would result in a 2 year suspension from the sport." Wow! Rickey Williams was facing a 4 game suspension for HIS second minor offense! Good thing there is nothing much coming up in the next 2 years except that little track meet in Athens...

While watching the games from Korea a smoked a little bit. Then fell asleep and dreamed I won gold in the hammer throw. Sounds like performance enhancing to me. Most of my dreams are boring...

"Those that hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself."
Richard M. Nixon

Niteshift

I'm not saying they are right or wrong, but I recall that back in the early 1980's, they tried to sanction a US athlete (high jumper Dwight Stones IIRC) for having pre-competition sex as a "performance enhancer", since sex releases testoterone into the body.

So I'm not sure how much research goes into their rulings.

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smoking_joe_lee

For all the info you are likely to need about performance enhancing sex, go to espn.com and click on Page 2, "Sex and Olympics go hand in hand."

A small sample of the info includes the following stats for the '04 Games:

countries 199
officials 3,000
athletes 10,500
Condoms, courtesy of Durex 130,000
Tubes of lubricant 30,000 same supplier)

sounds like something is going on...

There are many facts and stories in this story going back to ancient Greece but one interesting quote comes from an unnamed Russian psycologist, "It's simple, more sex means more gold." You know how them [ex]commies are when it comes to getting an unfair advantage!

Nothing about marijuana though...

"I was under medication when I made the decision not to burn the tapes."
Richard M Nixon
Even Tricky Dick got high!