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Dagga should not be on list
13/10/2005 21:30 - (SA)
Eben Human, Die Burger
Cape Town - Dagga should not have been on the list of banned substances.
This is the personal view of the chair of the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport, Dr Shuaib Manjra.
The latest annual report of the Drug-Free Institute showed that 10 sports people tested positive for dagga in the past year, compared to five the previous year.
Three were soccer players from Africa - two from Zambia and one from Kenya - who played in the local professional league.
Manjra said: "It was decided that dagga was against the spirit of the game. It's not a substance that can help you improve your game."
He pointed out that he would prefer people who tested positive for dagga to rather go for counselling.
Five South African cricket players - Paul Adams, Herschelle Gibbs, André Nel, Justin Kemp and Roger Telemachus, along with their physiotherapist, Craig Smith - were found in possession of dagga in 2001 on a tour to the Caribbean.
Only one positive test in first year
Dagga was not on the list of forbidden substances at that stage and the cricket players were not tested for it.
This is the third year that tests for dagga use have been conducted.
The first year of testing showed just one positive test, but it seems the problem is more prevelant in South African sport than initially thought.
"If dagga is on the list of forbidden substances, we must ask the question: why alcohol isn't on it?."
He said sports people should be encouraged to stop using dagga, but felt it was rather a social problem and that people should get counselling.
It is obvious that there is no unanimity in sport on how to penalise people who use dagga.
A baseball player, for example, was given a warning after testing positive for using dagga in the past year, a boxer was suspended for five months and a tug-of-war competitor was banned for a year.
Manjra said that, apart from the dagga contraventions and the 16 positive tests of the weightlifters, the remainder of SA sport did not have many positive tests.
The increase from 23 to 43 positive tests in the past year did not worry him too much.
"According to our tests, only 1% or 2% contravene the rules - a percentage that is in line with the rest of the world," Manjra said.
Had been tested several times
He felt strongly that more pro-active action should be taken in an attempt to prosecute the distributors of banned substances.
Manjra said: "I'm also very worried that two of our top athletes (Hezekiel Sepeng and Gladys Lukhwareni) tested positive."
He pointed out that an experienced Olympic athlete like Sepeng had been tested on numerous occasions. He would follow Sepeng's testimony in front of a tribunal with interest.
It was also noted that the former Comrades winner, Nick Bester, manager of the Harmony team, alleged recently that a Pretoria pharmacist possibly gave a banned substance to Lukhwareni.
Manjra said it was the distributors who should be apprehended.
- Die Burger
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