DAGGA SMOKING PLAYERS FACE BAN

MBABANE – Dagga smoking players are in for a shock. According to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), marijuana, which is illegally grown in large scale in the country, as evidenced by reported cases, falls under banned substances.

Presumably, athletes are not aware that the use of performance-enhancing drugs (doping) is prohibited within the sport. Weed is not confined to soccer players only, but athletes from other codes.

Athletes who are found to have used such banned substances, whether through a positive drugs test, the biological passport system, an investigation or public admission, may receive a competition ban for a length of time which reflects the severity of the infraction. Marijuana, at most, stays for up to a month in the blood of an athlete.

The Swaziland Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (SOCGA) will run a course from next Friday September 29 to Sunday October 1, 2018 with each association expected to send a minimum of one participant and it has been set as a compliancy for SOCGA membership for 2018. According to SOCGA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Muriel Hofer, the banned substances differ from each sporting code; for example a soccer player can drink alcohol when there is no immediate game or in off season. Energy drinks are considered clean for some sports and banned for some.   

The theme of the course is dubbed ‘developing a healthy culture of clean sport through education’. The workshop will concentrate on training the educators on developing a clean sport culture through value based education surrounding issues of doping and the general well-being of an athlete. Topics to be covered include promoting good values, identifying a healthy sport culture, nutrition, the risks of supplements and the periods when athletes are more vulnerable to doping.

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