Nanaimo cannabis company Tilray says it will be cheering for the U.S. sprinter who was suspended for smoking marijuana and will miss the Olympic 100-metre dash.
Tilray issued a statement Saturday, July 3, expressing support for Sha’Carri Richardson, the 21-year-old athlete who won the 100m event in 10.86 seconds at Olympic trials last month but subsequently failed a drug trust. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency noted in a statement Friday that Richardson had accepted a one-month suspension.
Since then, the athlete told NBC that she smoked cannabis as a way of dealing with the recent death of her mother.
Tilray chairman and CEO Irwin Simon said in a statement that the athlete’s suspension is a reminder that “the outdated legal and regulatory framework around cannabis must change” and said Richardson’s story about coping with loss is “fundamentally a human one.”
Simon said he encourages policy reform “for both Sha’Carri and the many millions of victims, often minorities, who fall prey to an antiquated and unjust cannabis enforcement regime.”
Richardson’s 30-day suspension may end in time for her to compete in the 4x100m relay at the Summer Games in Tokyo.
Tilray says it will be “cheering her on.”
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