The ten-year ban handed down to veteran rugby league player Vince Whare makes him another casualty of injustice in our 35 year-old war on drugs, said New Zealand NORML President Phil Saxby today.
The Canterbury Bulls’ prop has just been suspended from any involvement in sport for a decade by the Sports Tribunal of New Zealand after testing positive for cannabis use. He tested positive for cannabis twice before, once in 2005 and then again in 2006.
“The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code requires third-time doping offenders to be banned for at least eight years, but cannabis is no more a performance-enhancing drug than alcohol”, Mr Saxby said. “What would happen to sport if all alcohol-using players were banned after 3 drinking offences?”
“This is blatant discrimination against a man who chooses to relax with a substance that’s better for his health than alcohol. That cannabis is illegal has no bearing on his ability to play rugby, nor his right to play the game.”
“If sports bodies are concerned about their image, the focus should be on alcohol, not cannabis,” said Mr Saxby. “Half of all serious violent offences and one third of all offences in New Zealand are committed by offenders who have been drinking; while alcohol is associated with almost fifty percent of all reported incidents of sexual violence.”
“How is it that Robin Brooke can be drunk and grope a girl and not get banned? Sports bodies have a double standard – you can be publicly drunk and behave indecently, but receive more lenient treatment than if you simply get caught for smoking a joint at home. Is that really what we want young people to believe?”
“Whare’s punishment at the hands of the Sports Tribunal is far harsher than any court would have handed down. For the next ten years, this man can no longer have anything to do with the game he loves and is very, very good at. He can’t coach, he can’t run the line, or referee or be an official. This sentence is almost medieval in its harshness!” Mr Saxby concluded.
NORML New Zealand is far and away the most successful and active international chapter of NORML. Fully 8% of the web traffic I get here on the Stash is from New Zealand, making it the country second only to the US in web traffic here.
While NORML’s primary mission is to end adult marijuana prohibition in America, we are proud of the international chapters, like the one recently formed in Spain, NORML España, carrying on the NORML legacy and mission in other countries. If you are outside the USA and would like to help form your country’s national NORML Chapter, send an email to start@norml.org.
I hate double standards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why can´t laws be based on science/logic/intelligence. ¡Jésus!
If the Tribunal wants to send the message that it is more ok to get drunk and beat your wife than to smoke a plant in your home, then congrats, message received!
On another note, Russ, is NORML Mexico still a possibility with that one guy who got in contact with you?
Just more BS discrimination against cannabis consumers. Discrimination is the key word here, prohibition just makes cannabis illegal, discrimination makes it personal, now the person is the illegal problem! When will we get our rights, pot smokers bill of rights, when?
Sometimes I feel like we are on the edge of changing all this but them I read stories like this and see that its more than just winning over prohibition its also educating, so to end the discrimination of fellow tokers. Yet we still are fighting discrimination against gays and blacks and so on and so on, will we truly ever be free of discrimination?