World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA’s) Executive Committee (ExCo) agreed to maintain Cannabis as a banned substance after holding its meeting on September 23.
WADA rejected calls to change its status following requests from a number of stakeholders in September 2021.
Through the statement issued on Friday, September 23, the decision came after the following three criteria - whether the substance has the potential to enhance sports performance, represents a health risk to the athlete and if it violates the spirit of sport.
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For a substance to be included in the list, it must meet at least two of the aforementioned criteria.
“THC is prohibited in competition only, and only when the urinary concentration exceeds a threshold of 150 ng/mL. This threshold was increased in 2013 from 15 ng/mL. As such, the high level of cannabis required to trigger an Adverse Analytical Finding in competition today would be consistent with a significantly impaired athlete or a frequent user.
“Further, the inclusion of the ‘Substance of Abuse’ provision in the Code from 2021 significantly reduced the length of suspension from a potential two (or even four) years previously to as low as one month today for athletes who can establish that the THC use occurred out of competition and was unrelated to sports performance,” part of the statement read.
In his statement, WADA Director General Olivier Niggli noted that WADA was aware of the diversity of opinions about cannabis adding that they plan to continue with further research.
He added that the agency was also mindful that some requests for THC’s removal from the Prohibited List are not supported by the experts’ thorough review.
“WADA plans to continue research in this area in relation to THC’s potential performance-enhancing effects, its impact on the health of athletes and also in relation to perceptions of cannabis from athletes, experts and others around the world,” his statement read.