The Sept. 10 editorial "Put sumo back on course" is itself way off course. First of all, for some reason, Japanese Sumo has not had any organized system for drug testing, although it is likely that steroids have been used.
Because of an incident in which Wakanoho confessed to smoking pot once, sumo wrestlers were suddenly subjected to an ad hoc urine test that no major league baseball athlete, including Barry Bonds, would agree to.
Then, based on allegedly positive but disputed test results, two Russian wrestlers were summarily dismissed by what only could be called a kangaroo court, which insisted that they MUST have smoked marijuana in spite of their sworn denials.
They could easily have ingested significant amounts of pot without their knowledge by eating sushi laced with marijuana. Yes, eating it. Pot brownies, pot sushi, pot crepes etc. are quite common. In fact, it is said to be more potent eaten than smoked. So the Sumo Association totally overlooked the possibility that the two fired sumo wrestlers may be innocent.
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