According to the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) U.S. long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall has been stripped of her recent national indoor title and smacked with a one-month suspension after a positive test for cannabis.
USADA said Davis-Woodhall tested positive for THC, a chemical found in cannabis, marijuana and hashish. The positive test was from a sample collected in competition at the 2023 USA Track and Field indoor championships in New Mexico, on Feb. 17. She won the long jump title that day with a jump of 6.99 meters.
Why Is Marijuana A Banned Substance?
According to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which maintains the code of prohibited substances across sports and around the world, cannabis poses a health risk to athletes and it has the potential to enhance performance. Because of those two factors it is a banned substance.
WADA published a paper in 2011 detailing the issues with athletes taking cannabis.
In 2011, WADA published a paper in Sports Medicine discussing the reasons marijuana and cannabinoids meet the criteria. Below are excerpts from this publication that address the three criteria:
“Athletes who smoke cannabis or Spice in-competition potentially endanger themselves and others because of increased risk taking, slower reaction times and poor executive function or decision making.
“Based on current animal and human studies as well as on interviews with athletes and information from the field, cannabis can be performance enhancing for some athletes and sports disciplines.
“Use of illicit drugs that are harmful to health and that may have performance-enhancing properties is not consistent with the athlete as a role model for young people around the world.”
Will Marijuana Eventually Be Removed From The Banned Substance List?
The criminalization and stigmatization of marijuana is deep rooted, however as more progressive laws regarding its use and more science is produced to clarify its properties, maybe it will be removed from the banned list or meet less of the criteria to be banned.
“WADA seeks input on each year’s updated version of the Prohibited List,” USADA’s press release states. “USADA has advocated and will continue to advocate to WADA, the rule maker, to treat marijuana in a fairer and more effective way to identify true in-competition use.”
Davis-Woodhall began serving her suspension on March 21st so she is eligible to compete again.
In addition to being stripped of her title she was disqualified from all competitive results obtained on and subsequent to Feb. 17, including forfeiture of any medals, points and prizes.
THC is a special category of banned substance that allows for a reduced three-month sanction if an athlete can establish their use of the substance occurred out of competition and was unrelated to sport performance, per WADA rules.
USADA said Davis-Woodhall’s case was reduced to one month for those reasons and because she completed a substance abuse treatment program for her use of cannabis.
The debate about marijuana use in track and field was intense in 2021 after the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in Oregon. Sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson won the 100 meters and seemingly booked her spot on the team to Tokyo. But she had her title stripped after testing positive and has been working to move past it since.
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