Professional American golfer Robert Garrigus was the winner of the Children’s Miracle Network Classic in 2010. Today in 2019 Robert is back in the news in professional golf. The PGA has said no when it comes to THCa. Marijuana, hashish, PCP, meth, ecstasy, and cocaine are among some of the banned drugs for PGA players.
Before the beginning of the 2017-18 season for PGA players, the tour announced that blood test would be required for compliance with the PGA Tour’s revised anti-doping program. The PGA tour now is in line with the same list of banned substances as the world anti-doping agency. Robert Garrigus has been suspended from the PGA tour for violating the PGA tour drug policy and testing positive for THC.
This places him in PGA history as the first pro golfer to be suspended over a “drug of abuse” as described in the PGA tour anti-doping program. Garrigus received a three-month suspension. During his time as a pro golfer, Robert has earned an estimated $14.7 million. To be clear, it wasn’t by chance that Robert had THC in his system.
The PGA Says Nay to THCa
The PGA tour has set the threshold for testing for the THC metabolites extremely high. This means you can’t get away with saying you failed a test because you walked through a cloud of pot smoke on the street or were in a room filled with weed smoke. It’s unclear if the PGA Tour’s anti-doping policy understands that when it comes to abuse and addiction people die from prescription pills, not cannabis.
Golf now joins the ranks of other sports that allow athletes to treat their bodies with dangerous, addictive, and proven deadly prescription drugs, while rule makers continue to throw in the towel when it comes to cannabis. More athletes are coming forward in support of cannabis as an alternative treatment to prescription drugs. Perhaps this will convince the governing parties of multiple sports organizations to reevaluate the rules surrounding cannabis use by professional athletes.
