If Devin Logan has her way, she’ll be the first and last to serve this sort of doping ban.
The 2014 Olympic silver medalist is in the final week of a three-month suspension, announced Friday, for using a cannabis-based product she says contained higher-than-allowed levels of the banned substance, THC.
Though THC positives are nothing new – the chemical is found in marijuana – Logan’s case appears to be the first-of-its-kind in the United States involving Cannabidiol (CBD) drops, which athletes are increasingly using to manage pain.
What wasn’t unique about this case, however, is that it involved taking a product that she says had bad information on the ingredients label. It was listed as having only trace amounts of THC – which is banned above certain thresholds by the World Anti-Doping Agency – but clearly contained more.
“Everyone should look at my case and go deeper into their own investigations,” Logan said.
As marijuana and marijuana-based products become more widely legalized and accepted, supplements such as CBD will make more headlines in sports; the NFL and football players, for instance, are wrestling with exactly where these sorts of treatments should fit into their game. Just Thursday, Martha Stewart signed a deal to help a marijuana grower market its own brand of the product.
The 26-year-old Logan, who took silver in slopestyle five years ago at the Olympics, said she was shocked when she tested positive in December.
“I take 100 percent responsibility for it,” she said. “Being a veteran of my sport, I should know better.”
Logan is among the few in freestyle skiing who shoulders a full schedule on both the halfpipe and the slopestyle courses. It inflicts a brutal beating on her body. She said almost everyone in the action-sports world is looking for ways to manage pain, and talk of CBD is on the rise.
Logan’s six-month ban was reduced to three months because she took educational courses.
US Ski and Snowboard CEO Tiger Shaw said that while it’s not an excuse, it was important to note that Logan wasn’t aware of the THC in the drops she took.
“Anybody using CBD products should be aware that they may contain THC, whatever the packaging says,” Shaw said.
