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Cannabis as a Performance Enhancing Drug

KeenKraken·11/11/2019, 2:38:34 PM·1 votes·3,457 views
Electronic Sports League reveals list of drugs banned from e-sports

Currently, cannabis is listed as a PED by the ESL. Meaning, players cannot consume cannabis and compete in esports. They claim that cannabis can make players more focused and relieve anxiety. While the ESL only uses saliva tests, which can only detect cannabis up to 24 hours, the rule really only prevents people from smoking right before the match or using their medicine. I assume there are other players like myself, who use cannabis as medicine for various issues and do not feel it gives a competitive advantage due to a high tolerance and the purpose of the medicine. Would the ESL accept a doctors note for a substance that’s banned in a number of countries due to negative propaganda? On the other side of the coin you have people that don’t regularly use cannabis that may try it to enhance their normal games during off-season and realize that it has the exact opposite effect if you haven’t built a tolerance. I think cannabis as a performance enhancing drug is a far stretch, I do not believe it should be on the list as many of the effects are situational based on the individual consuming it. What do you guys think?

37 Comments

Jennifer1711/11/2019, 3:02:38 PM6 votes

damn i didnt expect to read something like this today. maybe my opinion is oldschool or whatever but i think drugs shouldnt be allowed in sport UNLESS theres a medical reason behind it. like anxiety that paralyzes you or something like that.

CaptainAntiHeroz11/11/2019, 2:43:28 PM5 votes

anything that warps or alters judgement should be banned in any sports, electronic or physical

AdamrCc11/11/2019, 5:05:43 PM1 votes

What a fucking truckload of bullshit. I have literally lost points in some of the easiest lane matchups because I've played while high and couldn't react for shit.

Cannabis slows down reaction big time and is the polar opposite of what caffeine does to influence your game.

Edit : Okay, I had to do some research and my earlier may not be 100% correct.

It seems like sativa does in fact increase focus and creativity, while indica is the one which makes you more relaxed. I've been smoking Indica for a long time now. I have never tried sativa but if it's wildly different in that it actually works like caffeine and helps react faster then by all means it should get banned.

Lost R11/11/2019, 5:37:20 PM1 votes

Someone I queued up with said he needed to go do something. I wait, getting wrapped up in my personal projects, and half an hour later, the guy turns his mic back on and tells me that he was so high, he didn't realize that we weren't even in a game and had just been sitting in the lobby for the past half-hour. I removed him from my contacts list immediately after that.

I honestly wouldn't know whether or not it's a PED, given that everyone I meet brags about how high they are just to make themselves sound cool (though they end up sounding like they don't realize they had shat themselves at least seven times), and testing it myself would be pointless since I'm almost immune to most things.