CANNABIS CULTURE – Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati probably thought his drug-testing days were behind him after a 1998 scandal that saw his Olympic gold-medal taken away, then returned to him because he tested positive for THC.
But somehow the weed-friendly sports star and one-time Liberal political candidate has been foiled again by a positive cannabinoid test, though he wasn’t even tested this time!
From the National Post article “Ross Rebagliati’s ex-wife claims she found marijuana traces after having three-year-old son’s hair tested”:
Alexandra Rebagliati, 33, a Kelowna real estate agent, has accused Rebagliati — who was briefly stripped of his 1998 Winter Olympics gold medal after famously testing positive for marijuana after the race — of smoking pot around their three-year-old son, of whom they share custody according to an interim agreement.
Alexandra said in a filed affidavit that after the court ordered Ross not to use illegal drugs while caring for their son, the boy came home from his father’s mimicking Ross’s smoking by holding his fist to his mouth and saying, “Look, Mommy, I smoking,” according to an online report.
Alexandra says Ross “smokes marijuana on a daily basis” and that it affects his mental thinking and “presents a negative role model for the child,” according to the custody agreement.
The mother even paid to have her son’s hair tested for “cannabinoids” at a private clinic and the positive results will likely be used in court to bolster the mom’s bid for primary custody.
She also said she begged Ross to quit smoking during their seven-year marriage and often threw out his marijuana stash, which he would retrieve from the garbage.
Ross, 40, who now lives in Whistler with his new girlfriend, who was pregnant in January, admitted to the court he smokes marijuana “to soothe his painful joints” but not daily. He agreed to comply with the court order but didn’t promise to quit using marijuana.
Yikes! Talk about hitting a guy where it hurts.
Before you judge Ross as a red-eyed, child-neglecting monster, who must have been blowing thick clouds of marijuana smoke into his small child’s bassinet, consider that a positive test result could mean the hair was contaminated by hand-to-hair contact. Ross has already admitted to using marijuana for medical reasons and I’m guessing he rolls his own joints. After twisting up his medicine, Dad puts on the kid’s little rasta touque and badda-boom, positive drug test and ammunition for the courtroom.
Who knows, maybe Mom or Dad wash the li’l Rebagliati with Johnson & Johnson or many other baby soaps that TIME magazine reports, “can trigger a positive result on newborns’ marijuana screening tests,” according to recent studies.
Though I don’t advise hot-boxing with youngsters, I can’t recall any research showing risks or harms to children from marijuana-smoking parents. Just the opposite in fact: solidly-researched studies show children of pot-using mothers were more well-adjusted than children born to non-using mothers.
Maybe the judge in Ross and Alexandra divorce proceedings has read that study and will factor it into his or her decision. My guess is probably not.
