Pubdate: Tue, 14 Jun 2016
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Page: S12
Copyright: 2016 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Sean Fitz-Gerald

MARIJUANA GAMES COMBINING HUFFING AND PUFFING

Organizer of the 420 Games and Pot-Friendly Gyms Hopes to Bring 
Out-Of-The-Weeds Movement North

In college, Jim McAlpine used marijuana to combat his attention 
deficit disorder when term papers had to be finished. Now, as a 
46-year-old married father and businessman near San Francisco, he 
uses twice daily: "My mind is one of those minds that's just always 
moving and I need to slow it down."

Marijuana is his answer - and his business. McAlpine, who has founded 
a marijuana-themed travelling sports carnival called the 420 Games, 
is planning to open a pot-friendly fitness centre in Northern 
California with help from former Toronto Argonauts running back Ricky 
Williams. And he has plans to expand both businesses, with an eye on Canada.

"In the time we're in today, and where I've had to live my life in 
terms of hiding my cannabis use, I just felt the world was ready for 
it," McAlpine said. "With education, the Internet, all the kind of 
false propaganda is being torn down."

Marijuana is having a moment in North America. Prime Minister Justin 
Trudeau ran on a platform that included a promise to legalize it, and 
legislation is expected next spring. U.S. President Barack Obama said 
he used marijuana in his youth and several states have been moving it 
closer to the mainstream.

In that regard, sports is both a beacon and a final frontier. The CFL 
does not test players for marijuana, but other organizations do.

In March, retired Chicago Bulls player Jay Williams estimated up to 
80 per cent of NBA players use marijuana. Last month, Baltimore 
Ravens offensive lineman Eugene Monroe donated $80,000 (U.S.) to a 
cannabis study involving players, seeking alternatives to the 
prescription painkillers that have led many to addiction.

Ross Rebagliati, the 1998 Olympic gold medal snowboarder and cannabis 
advocate, said that is part of why McAlpine's ventures make sense. 
Marijuana and fitness, he said, can be mentioned together.

"To me, it represents the connection between cannabis and a healthy 
lifestyle," Rebagliati said. "I think that's really the bottom line: 
that cannabis can be a big part of a really healthy lifestyle."

Rebagliati became an instant global celebrity when a drug test showed 
traces of marijuana after he won his gold medal in Nagano 18 years 
ago. Now 44, he has also become a cannabis entrepreneur, creating 
Ross' Gold, a company that is planning to open a store this summer in 
Kelowna, B.C.

He has been in contact with McAlpine.

"So the idea of connecting it to a sporting event is probably 'out 
there' for people who are not users of cannabis or not close to the 
industry," Rebagliati said. "I can tell you for a fact that athletes 
love using cannabis, no matter what sport they're in." The 420 Games 
are more an advocacy vehicle than they are an athletic endeavour, at 
least compared to "Games" in an Olympic sense. Athletes set out on a 
run of 4.20 miles (about 6.75 km) - the number 420 being code for 
marijuana use - within an atmosphere like any other kind of fun run. 
(There has also been a golf tournament and a paddleboard race.)

McAlpine said there is no minimum skill level to enter, but that 
athletes are asked not to smoke while competing: "That's so the 
outside looking in doesn't see a figurative and literal cloud of 
smoke above our heads."

The gym, called Power Plant Fitness, is scheduled to open in the 
fall. McAlpine said members will be assessed to see how cannabis 
affects them. If signs are favourable, they will be able to work out 
while consuming marijuana. Vaping and eating it will be encouraged, 
rather than smoking.

There are already plans to expand. McAlpine said he is looking to Los 
Angeles and San Diego, with an eye to moving further down the road to 
Colorado, Washington and Oregon. Once four of five gyms are up and 
running, he said, he will look to franchise.

The 420 Games, meanwhile, will make their next stop in Seattle on 
July 31. McAlpine said he wants to bring them to Canada, likely first 
to Vancouver: "We would very much like to bring it up there."

"I gotta say, Trudeau, I'm a big fan of his," he said. "And I think 
he was very smart in the way he put his platform together.

"I think Canada is somewhat setting an example for the United States, 
ahead of what we're doing down here, quite honestly."

Toronto would be a difficult proposition for the gym. Toronto police 
raided dozens of dispensaries last month. Lawyer Kendra Stanyon is 
representing a number of those dispensaries, and she said the gym 
would "face a legal and regulatory minefield that's just very 
confusing and contradictory at this point."

Edible marijuana, for example, would not be allowed inside a Toronto 
gym, she said, because technically, edible marijuana is not allowed 
anywhere in the city.

"I think what he would see, looking to Canada," she said, "is an 
absolute mess of a legal system."

Williams, the former Heisman Trophy winner, spent one season in 
Toronto, in 2006, following a failed NFL drug test. McAlpine said 
Williams will not be involved with the gym on a day-to-day basis, but 
he will sketch out workout plans. The former football player, he 
said, should be thought of "as the head guru of the Power Plant 
Fitness church."

"Since I was 18 years old, I've eaten marijuana to lift weights," 
McAlpine said. "It was something, in my life, I felt was somewhat of 
a secret. I just want to share that secret with other people now."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom