Following the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games suspension of American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson, who admitted to using cannabis to cope with the stress of losing her mother and was consequently excluded from the U.S. Olympic team, backlash ensued over the harshness of the penalty imposed by the United States Anti-Doping Agency. This prompted the World Anti-Doping Agency (“WADA”) to review its inclusion of cannabis as a prohibited substance.
Article 4.3.1.3 of WADA’s World Anti-Doping Code (“the Code”), which was established in the wake of the 1998 Tour de France doping scandal and is adhered to by the IOC, prohibits substances on the basis of three criteria. Two of these criteria must be met to justify a substance’s inclusion: 1) It has the potential to enhance performance; 2) It poses potential health risks; and 3) It violates the “spirit of sport.”
Upon its review of cannabis’ inclusion as a substance, WADA admitted that the applicability of the first criterion to cannabis is questionable. While some research has suggested cannabis has muscle-relaxant and lung-volume-expanding properties, which may prove useful for endurance athletes, it is unclear whether these effects meet a performance-enhancing threshold or are offset by the concurrent debilitating effects of the drug.
Nonetheless, WADA maintained that the second and third criteria apply to cannabis. In particular, WADA noted that the use of cannabis, which remains illegal in the vast majority of countries that participate in international sports competition, impacts an athlete’s respect for rules and laws set by various societies, and impairs the athlete’s ability to act as a role model. As a result, WADA concluded that cannabis use by an athlete contravenes the “spirit of sport” criteria. WADA has held firm in this belief, regardless of changing laws and attitudes towards cannabis across the world, and has continued to list cannabis as a prohibited substance for Olympic athletes at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
With that said, WADA has relaxed its approach to cannabis over the years. In 2013, it raised the threshold for the amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in one’s system that results in a failed drug test from 15 ng/mL to 150 ng/mL. This change reflects WADA’s desire to only sanction athletes who actively use cannabis during competitions. The impetus for the change came after American Judo athlete Nick Delpopolo was disqualified from the 2012 London Olympic Games after he tested positive for THC, which he claimed entered his system after he unknowingly ate a cannabis-infused brownie several days before he traveled to London to compete.
WADA also decided to remove cannabidiol (CBD), but no other cannabinoid derived from cannabis plants, from the Code’s list of prohibited substances in 2017. This decision was made partly out of a recognition of the enhanced therapeutic use of CBD for recovering athletes relative to pharmacological drugs, such as painkillers that contain addictive opioids (Tramadol, for example). A number of high-profile athletes, including now-retired American soccer player Megan Rapinoe, have since spoken up about their use of CBD in their training and recovery regimens in an effort to destigmatize the drug.
Still, other top sports leagues have gone further, particularly in North America, where social attitudes towards cannabis have evolved. In 2019, Major League Baseball became the first major North American sports league to stop testing for THC and CBD (though it continues to test for synthetic cannabinoids). In 2020, the National Basketball Association followed suit, and also stopped testing for THC and CBD. Finally, the National Football League revised its own cannabis policy such that a positive cannabis test no longer automatically warrants a suspension, unless the team finds it necessary to offer substance abuse treatment and the player refuses.
In light of these changes across North American professional sports, whose athletes are also Olympics Games participants, it may be time for WADA to consider a change to how it regulates cannabis, especially when compared to the way it regulates alcohol. In 2018, WADA completely removed alcohol as a substance from the Code, allowing domestic and international regulatory bodies to sanction alcohol use on a case-by-case basis where such use is proximate enough to a competition to either place athletes in danger, or provide a competitive advantage. Given the vague and value-laden third criterion involved in the determination of a substance’s prohibition, a more significant global shift regarding cannabis’ legal and cultural status would likely have to occur before WADA would declare its use as compatible with the “spirit of sport.” While this term is primarily intended to capture the ethics of fair play compromised by cheating via performance-enhancing substances, the Code notes it is reflected in a broader range of values encompassing “character,” “respect for rules and laws,” and “respect for self,” among other things. As cannabis remains criminalized in the vast majority of jurisdictions around the world, and its use is still seen as a moral failing in many cultures, the prevalence of anti-cannabis views is likely to continue and so too will the inclusion of cannabis as a prohibited substance under the Code, regardless of its impact on an athlete’s performance.
(Justin is a 2nd-year law student and summer student for CansultED. CansultEd is an alternative dispute resolution company that operates exclusively in the US Cannabis space.)