By Ben Stanley
Kiwi athletes should be able to apply for medical exemptions to use cannabis if next year's referendum on legalising the drug passes into law.
Regardless of whether it becomes legal in New Zealand or not, cannabis will remain a banned substance on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)'s doping list, meaning athletes who test positive for it face bans.
Yet NZ's national drug testing agency for sport says it is likely allow athletes to use various cannabis products – including those that include tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which gives the drug its psychoactive qualities – "in-competition" if they can prove they require the substance for medical treatment.
"For us, [it would be] a medicine like any other medicine," Nick Paterson, Drug Free Sport New Zealand's chief executive, told the Herald.
The move would follow in the footsteps of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES), who, following their country's own legalization of the drug, have set up a rigorous medical exemption process.
Under CCES rules, athletes must provide a comprehensive medical history for their diagnosis, results of a complete medical exam and supporting letter from their physician to apply for medical exemption to use cannabis.
Drug Free Sport NZ already has similar exemption stipulations in place for other banned substances, such as insulin and various asthma medications, and cannabis would be no different.
"If you're an athlete and you are prescribed a drug for a proper purpose via your physician, and you've got all the
notes and reports and what have you to go with it, you apply to us [and] say [for example] 'I'm diabetic and need insulin,' Paterson says.
"Insulin is prohibited in sport, [but] you apply to us and we say 'you need your doctor's report and a whole bunch of stuff', which goes to our therapeutic uses exemption (TUE) committee."
An independent panel made up of four doctors, Drug Free Sport NZ's TUE committee assesses an athlete's need for medical treatment via a banned substance before judging whether they can be provided with an exemption to use that medication.
"They look at it and say 'yep, you've got a genuine medical need, you've got a genuine medical diagnosis, this is a genuine medical prescription," and for the period of your needs going forward – it might be eight weeks, it might be six months – you have got an exemption, in that case insulin," Paterson says.
"If we test you during that period and get a positive result, we look on file and see you've got a TUE … you're allowed to have those levels.
"That gives you a proper chance, as an athlete who happens to be diabetic, to compete against people who aren't diabetic – and cannabis will be no different."
Numerous international studies have shown cannabis' beneficial medicinal qualities, especially regarding pain relief and muscle recovery.
Earlier this year in Canada, more than 100 former NHL ice hockey players signed on to a study to monitor how cannabis usage could positively assist in concussion rehabilitation.
As its benefits have become clearer, WADA has significantly loosened its rules on cannabis testing over the last decade.
In 2013, WADA raised the allowable 'in-competition' threshold for a positive cannabis test from 15 nanograms per mililitre of urine to 150 ng/mL, while last year, it removed cannabidiol (CBD) as a banned substance.
Paterson says Drug Free Sport NZ has lobbied WADA to remove cannabis from their banned list for the majority of the last decade, arguing that the drug is not performance enhancing for athletes.
Two Kiwi athletes – provincial rugby league players Vincent Whare and Samuel Henry – are both currently serving bans for using cannabis. Both will end before the cannabis referendum occurs next year.