As American track star Sha’Carri Richardson on Friday apologized and accepted her suspension from the 100-meter sprint event at the upcoming Summer Olympics in Tokyo following a positive marijuana test, drug war abolitionists, progressive politicians, athletes, and other observers decried what they called the utter absurdity of a ban occurring amid a wave of U.S. cannabis legalization.
Appearing on NBC’s “Today” show Friday morning, Richardson — widely viewed as a top contender for Tokyo gold following a string of stellar performances including a winning 10.86-second 100-meter run at the U.S. Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon last month — said she was sorry for her actions.
“I apologize,” said Richardson. “As much as I’m disappointed I know that when I step on the track I represent not only myself, I represent a community that has shown great support, great love.”
“Don’t judge me, because I am human… I just happen to run a little faster.”
Sha’Carri Richardson (@itskerrii) speaks with @SavannahGuthrie about her failed drug test. pic.twitter.com/aZKTDhYn6Z
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) July 2, 2021
“I apologize for the fact that I didn’t know how to control my emotions or deal with my emotions during that time,” added Richardson, whose biological mother had died a week before the Olympic trials. Richardson learned of the death from a journalist during an interview.
The suspension of one of the world’s fastest women sparked widespread outrage, with drug war abolitionists leading calls for reform.
“In 2021, at a time when marijuana use is legally accepted in a growing number of U.S. states and around the world, it makes exactly zero sense for regulators to continue to take punitive actions against athletes like Sha’Carri Richardson or anyone else who chooses to consume cannabis in their off-hours,” Erik Altieri, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), said in a statement.
LET 👏 HER 👏 RACE 👏 – https://t.co/k5XJPPFf4g
— NORML (@NORML) July 2, 2021
Marijuana is currently legal for recreational use in 19 states — including Oregon — Washington, D.C., and Guam, with medicinal use approved in dozens of states.
“Sha’Carri Richardson, like millions of her fellow Americans, turned to cannabis’ therapeutic benefits to help her cope with the tragic loss of her mother,” Altieri added. “To use this as a rationale for denying this athlete, who is otherwise competing at the top of her sport, the ability to represent the United States at the Tokyo Olympics should be an unacceptable outcome in this situation. Let Richardson race.”
So let me get this straight: the cannabis industry is projected to rake in $70 billion by 2028, but thousands of people are behind bars for cannabis charges, and Sha’Carri Richardson is suspended from the Olympics for using it?
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) July 2, 2021
Kassandra Frederique, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), issued a statement asserting that “drug testing is yet another tool of the drug war, and it’s a failure.”
“Sha’Carri’s suspension serves as a cautionary tale and a reminder of how insidious the drug war is in our everyday lives, far beyond the carceral state,” said Frederique.
She continued:
Sha’Carri is a young, autonomous, Black woman and she has the right to put whatever she wants in her body. She shouldn’t have to apologize for the choices she makes to navigate her life. Yet she is being locked out of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity she has fought her entire life for because she chose to use marijuana to cope with the grief of losing her biological mother. But let us be clear: trauma is not a prerequisite for all drug use.
“Sha’Carri apologized, mentioning ‘I know what I am not allowed to do, and I still made that decision.’ But the rules are inconsistent,” said Frederique. “Sha’Carri reportedly used marijuana in Oregon—a state where adult use is legal. These inconsistencies force people to be stuck in the middle, navigating unclear rules and being faced with lifelong consequences.”
“We must end the drug war once and for all so that no one is subjected to contradictory and punitive rules about what they can and cannot put in their own bodies,” she added.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) was one of several U.S. lawmakers who weighed in on Richardson’s suspension, tweeting that “there is no need for Sha’Carri to apologize.”
“We need to get rid of archaic rules for a substance that is fully legal in 19 states plus D.C. And we need to legalize it at the federal level,” he said.
Sports figures including three-time NBA champion Dwayne Wade and former figure skating champion Adam Rippon also denounced the suspension.
As an athlete we know the rules, which she has acknowledged. With some athletes taking steroids for performance enhancement, in what world would marijuana enhance performance???
— Adam Rippon (@AdamRippon) July 2, 2021
Just to be added. She did this in a state where marijuana is legal.
— Adam Rippon (@AdamRippon) July 2, 2021
Meanwhile, The Nation sports editor Dave Zirin shared a MoveOn.org petition in support of Richardson.
“In no world is marijuana a performance-enhancing drug for runners,” the petition — which as of Friday evening collected more than 150,000 signatures — says. “The United States Anti-Doping Agency should drop their penalty and allow Richardson to compete!”
“There are many reasons to have rules against performance-enhancing drugs,” it adds, “but this one is absurd.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 130 new monthly donors before midnight tonight.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy