Athletes and Pot

Denver -- It was the morning of a 2010 playoff game, and one of the Nuggets had just smoked some nuggets. As the team practiced, the player was so high that Rex Chapman, a team executive at the time, had to pull him aside to get him to focus.
"Across all walks of life and in every profession, people smoke (marijuana). This is no secret, and pro sports are not exempt," said Chapman, who played 12 years in the NBA. "But employers deserve and pay for A-plus employees. There is a time and place for everything. As a member of a team, guys owe it to their teammates to put their best foot forward."

Marijuana use has long been a part of sports' subculture, especially and fittingly in a place nicknamed the Mile High City. It soon may become part of the mainstream. New laws taking effect Wednesday in Colorado allow the retail sale of recreational marijuana.
But as much as society often mirrors changes in sports culture, to most of the ruling bodies of sports, weed remains a four-letter word. Fiercely protective of their image, they don't want athletes openly smoking marijuana, regardless of what Colorado voters might say. There is evidence in recent surveys, however, that society's changing views toward marijuana, specifically widespread acceptance of the medicinal benefits in alleviating pain, are thawing previous hard-line stances.
Winter Olympic athletes, for example, are all but given a free pass for smoking marijuana while out of competition. And the World Anti-Doping Agency this past May increased the threshold for a positive marijuana test tenfold. The NHL, meanwhile, alone among the big four North American professional sports, does not include marijuana among its banned substances.
Nevertheless, advocates for the use of marijuana know they face an uphill challenge making cannabis legal for athletes.