In the wake of Sha’Carri Richardson being banned from the Olympics over marijuana use, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will review cannabis’ status as a banned substance.
The WADA executive committee announced this week of what it intends to do, roughly two months after the athlete had been disqualified from the Tokyo Olympics for using marijuana after learning her mother had died.
Richardson told “Today” she used the substance after learning from a reporter that her biological mom had died. The news, she said, “sent me in a state of emotional panic.”
WADA said in a statement that the review was prompted after the agency received requests from “a number of stakeholders.”
The scientific review of cannabis will be initiated in 2022, the agency said. They added that it will be conducted by the agency’s Prohibited List Expert Advisory Group.
Until any change of its status is confirmed, cannabis will still be prohibited in competition through at least 2022.
According to a 2011 paper from the WADA published in the journal Sport Medicine, marijuana is banned because athletes who smoke cannabis “could potentially endanger themselves and others because of increased risk taking, slower reaction times and poor executive function or decision making.”
The agency also said that the substance can be “performance enhancing for some athletes” and that using it is “not consistent with the athlete as a role model for young people.”
A 2018 study published in the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine found that there “is no direct evidence of performance-enhancing effects in athletes.”
“The potential beneficial effects of cannabis as part of a pain management protocol, including reducing concussion-related symptoms, deserve further attention,” that paper read.
