A striker who plays for the soccer team Deportes Tolima has tested positive for the use of marijuana, El Espectador reported Thursday.
Though the team has still not given an official statement on the matter, Wilder Medina apparently tested positive after Deportes Tolima’s game against Cali during the eighth round of the Liga Postobon. It is also apparently the third time the player has had marijuana found in his system this year.
Medina does not deny that he has consumed marijuana in the past but insists that he has kicked the habit.
“I have changed, I left the problem that has destroyed my life, now I am another person who believes in God and respects the rules of the game”.
His lawyer also responded by arguing that marijuana can stay in the body for six months after being consumed.
Juan Carlos Quiceno, a medical adviser to the District Institute of Recreation and Sport (IDRD) has countered the soccer player’s defense however by pointing out that a urine test registers marijuana when it has been ingested within 30 days and a hair analysis can detect marijuana for up to 90 days, a shorter time than what is alleged to be the last time the player ingested the drug, El Tiempo reports.
Sanctions are pending from the disciplinary commission of the Colombian soccer association but the new offence will now have to be corroborated by a new test, AFP reports.
