Pubdate: Thu, 23 Apr 2015 Source: StarPhoenix, The (CN SN) Copyright: 2015 The StarPhoenix Contact: http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/400 Author: Joe O'Connor Page: C8 OLYMPIAN REBAGLIATI TOUTS POT AS PERFORMANCE-ENHANCING DRUG TORONTO - Ross Rebagliati had just finished smoking his seventh joint of the day. But he was not high, he said, or stoned, or baked or whatever else one might assume another human being would be after smoking their seventh joint of the day - by 3:30 p.m. "I am just keeping an even keel," Rebagliati said, adding that cannabis use is all about individual tolerance and dosing. Smoke or eat too much and a user risks feeling anxious, or paranoid. But the 1998 Olympic snowboarding champion who rocketed to fame in Nagano for winning the gold - before rocketing to infamy for testing positive for marijuana afterwards - definitely wasn't paranoid. He was kicking back against a brick wall, and puffing away, in clear view of a Toronto streetcar stop while an immense cloud of marijuana smoke hovered over nearby Dundas Square. The Whistler, B.C., resident had come east to add his voice to a pro-marijuana rally and to market some product - including a gold-plated water pipe that retails for $24,420 - as the chief pitchman and namesake behind Ross' Gold, a "premium branded medical cannabis." Rebagliati's medical pot company is wending its way through the government licensing process, leaving him plenty of time to proselytize on the merits of marijuana as medicine, but also as a performance-enhancing substance for elite athletes. That's right: a steroid for stoners. "The stereotype of the pot smoker was pretty much thrown aside when I came along in 1998," Rebagliati says. "I had short hair. I was an Olympic gold medallist. I was in the best shape of my life ... "And for me, whether you are skiing, or snowboarding, or riding a road bike, or working out at the gym, (marijuana use) puts you in the moment. "You get in a zone where you can give it a 110 per cent." I know what you are thinking because, traditionally, science has thought so, too: the only performance pot smoking will enhance is how much pizza a person is capable of eating at a single sitting. Studies have shown that THC, the main active chemical in pot - and the compound that gets one high - impairs hand-eye co-ordination, reaction times and the ability to concentrate. It also makes you sleepy. Not ideal when getting ready for the big race. But Rebagliati's ideas about pot and elevated performance aren't necessarily the ramblings of a middle aged snowboarder - he turns 44 in July - who has smoked a few too many joints on the chairlift. Mark Ware is an associate professor at McGill University and the executive director of the Canadian Consortium for the Investigation of Cannabinoids. He can't say whether cannabis boosts performance or not, because the data doesn't exist. No studies have been done. What is available are anecdotes, from the likes of Rebagliati, NFL players, ultra-marathoners - and even professional cage fighters - who say that using pot is an integral part of their training. "We owe it to these people to follow up," the professor says. "These are very interesting ideas and hypotheses, and I would take them very seriously." Andrea Giuffrida, an associate professor at the University of Texas, says cannabidiol - or CBD - another chemical compound present in marijuana, may, in isolation, boost the production of endorphin-like molecules during prolonged exercise. Endorphins produce the so-called "runners high," a feeling of euphoria, where an athlete transcends the aches and pains, and runs free. "But again, there is not very much science around this topic yet," Giuffrida said in an email. Nate Jackson played six NFL seasons with the Denver Broncos. He smoked pot throughout, using it to dull the pain, and as a natural alternative to the handfuls of painkillers team trainers freely dispensed. He has urged the NFL to remove marijuana from its banned substance list, and believes that the drug boosted his performance - though has cautioned that what works for one athlete could be a disaster for the next. "Some people get high and their muscle memory locks in and they feel like they can't miss," Jackson told Men's Journal last year. "Some people get high and fall apart." Rebagliati was smoking weed at the pro-pot rally in Toronto as a show of solidarity. For the most part, he ingests it. Mixing cannabis infused honey with his morning coffee and smoothies.