If the Grass is Green: Marijuana and Sport in New Zealand

In the lead up to WEED WEEK on VICELAND (April 17-23, from 6PM) we're running a series of stories on New Zealand's most widely-used illegal drug.

The sun was shining, some of South Africa's best wine was being poured—and there was plenty of time on everyone's hands.

From the Nederburg vineyard in Paarl, the view of the nearby Hawequa Mountain Range was truly epic. Conversation was chill and mostly centred around a shared passion: cricket.

Does a situation ever come more perfect for a few puffs of weed with your mates?

For a handful of Kiwi test cricket players in South Africa in late December 1994, the answer seemed obvious. For New Zealand Cricket—as they manufactured a PR disaster about the incident over the next month—and some quarters of the Kiwi sporting public, it didn't.

A review of the South Africa 1994/95 test series on YouTube.

Twenty-three years have now passed since the infamous dope-smoking tour to South Africa in 1994. While lower-tier athletes over the past two decades have copped the odd ban—and a cheeky joint is still often enjoyed at the grassroots levels pre- and post-game—the presence of weed on the Kiwi sporting stage has been relatively minimal.

The closest marijuana got to the headlines was when former Breakers point guard Corey Webster tested positive for synthetic weed in 2011. He received a year ban for his troubles.

Cannabinoids such marijuana and synthetic weed are on Drug Free Sport New Zealand's banned list as being prohibited "in competition". Cannabis itself was only placed on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned list in 2004.

Figures released in 2013 showed about 70 per cent of positive tests for banned substances by Drug Free Sport NZ were for cannabis or its synthetic replacements. You can't imagine the stats have changed much in the past four years.

Of the 11 athletes currently serving bans from Drug Free Sport NZ, three received them for cannabis use. One of them, former Canterbury Bulls prop Vince Whare, got nailed with a 10-year ban from rugby league in 2010 after failing a third weed test.

Yet before resigning in February, Graeme Steel, Drug Free Sport NZ's long-time chief executive, said that, while he didn't encourage athletes hooking into the green, testing for cannabis was a waste of resources that could be better used by the organisation.

A waste of energy is exactly what followed the investigation and resulting punishments by New Zealand Cricket after the 1994 dope-smoking incident.

Pot and cricket have long linked arms. West Indian cricket player David Murray—who never played internationally—admitted to lighting up "before and after the day's play, but never in the breaks—you can't do that," while legendary English all-rounder Sir Ian "Beefy" Botham—a long-time weed smoker—once received a two-month ban for his pastime for "bringing the game into disrepute".

Teams have been in hot water before too. Pakistani players were accused of being found with marijuana "and two female British tourists" in the early 90s. Five top-string South African test players were caught smoking cannabis in 2001. When Stephen Fleming, Matthew Hart and Dion Nash—who, like former President Bill Clinton, swore he never inhaled—passed around a joint at Nederburg with a few local cricketers back in 1994, they were entering into a rich tradition in the sport.

So too, it has been long rumoured, were several other teammates and their partners back at the hotel later that night as a barbie took place.

After former New Zealand seamer Danny Morrison allegedly ratted out the first few lads to then-skipper Ken Rutherford, the management's "investigation" began. Fleming, Hart and Nash admitted they had all had a few puffs, expecting others to come forward for their involvement later in the night.

No one else did, and, over the next month, the three youngsters were hung out to dry by New Zealand Cricket. In a contender for most overblown statement in Kiwi sporting history, Peter McDermott, then the body's chairman, labeled their few draws on that Paarl joint "endemic of the malaise that appears to have infected the game… this has been one of the darkest weeks in the history of our sport."

Controversy raged, and some observers felt that the trio had buggered up promising careers. Dot Hart, mother of Matthew, blew the case wide open in an angry phone call to sports talkback radio, saying that the whole team had been involved and the blame on her son, Flem and Nashy was a disgrace.

The trio would end up receiving a relatively small three-match ban—remember, WADA wouldn't even place cannabis on their prohibited list until 2004—but the resulting stench clung to Kiwi cricket for at least a decade.

What would happen now? Say a couple of young Kiwi test players are on tour in the Windies or India, and get nabbed with a joint.

While the changed, pro-active culture of the New Zealand cricket team—especially with Kane Williamson at the helm—makes it seem highly unlikely, you'd have to imagine a punishment more severe than a three-match ban being dished out.

And why? Precedent, New Zealand Cricket would probably say. That goes for any other Kiwi sporting organisation too. The most recent punishments issued by Drug Free Sport NZ for smoking weed went to two provincial league players in February. Both received six-month bans.

Interestingly enough though, the prohibited use of cannabis by Drug Free Sport NZ only refers to when an athlete is "in competition". The definitions of this seem ambiguous, and probably for the reasons you expect.

Yet say the sun was shining at a beautiful Waiheke vineyard and an athlete is recovering from a terrible ankle injury—maybe they'll be out a year—and a dank, familiar smell wafts towards them.

What follows could be part of a very pleasant afternoon, or an unnecessary scandal that seems more like a two-decade throwback than the breaking of any truly significant rules.

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