Drug Free Sport New Zealand (DFSNZ) has reported an anti-doping rule violation against the Respondent after his sample tested positive for the prohibited substance Cannabis.
After notification a provisional suspension was ordered. Respondent filed a statement in his defence and was heard for the Tribunal.
Evidence was given at the hearing that Respondent and his wife visited a friend (L) in California the night before they left for New Zealand and that while there he ate a cellophane wrapped sweet from a bowl of sweets that was offered to him by L. The sweets had been left behind at L’s place by a friend of L and Respondent and L assumed they were a common commercial candy. However, L subsequently discovered from the friend who left the sweets behind, when the friend came to retrieve them, that the sweets had been obtained from a medical marijuana store and were laced with cannabis. The consumption of the sweet was 12 days before the drug test. Respondent gave evidence, supported by his witnesses, that he does not use cannabis, that he has never failed a drug test before and that the source of the cannabis must have been from the laced sweet.
The Tribunal considers that on the evidence presented in this case, including scientific evidence and material, it was unable to rule out the sweet as a source of cannabis causing the positive test result. The Tribunal finds Respondent and his witnesses to be credible and accepts their evidence as truthful. The Tribunal was satisfied on the balance of probability that the cannabis, resulting in the positive test, entered Respondent’s system through his consumption of the sweet.
Therefore the Sports Tribunal of New Zealand decides that Respondent was not at fault for the anti-doping violation.
No penalty was imposed and the provisional suspension order lapsed.
