Well, things haven’t changed much since my last column, at least in Iowa State sports. Our men have had everything go halfway down the well and come back out: victories, comebacks, free throws, layups, treys. You name it, we’ve missed it.

For the women, almost everything is going right, as they have nearly clinched an NCAA tournament berth and a school record for victories to boot.

The Olympics have started, and to say the least, have been weather-influenced and controversial. Headlining the first week is the case of Ross Rebagliati.

If you don’t remember, Rebagliati is the Canadian snowboarder who is the first Olympian stripped of a gold medal since 1988 after testing positive for drugs. (Ben Johnson was stripped of his shiny medallion after testing positive to using a steroid.) But as of Thursday morning, Rebagliati, who tested positive for marijuana, won back his medal after an appeal by the Canadian Olympic Association.

It’s an interesting question, really. Should he have lost his medal for marijuana use?

It’s a multi-part question. Do you object to smoking marijuana? Or to stripping someone of the prize earned for his or her athletic accomplishment? Do you think marijuana enhances performance? Or do you agree with all of these things?

Before trying to answer these questions, it’s even more fascinating to look at the International Olympic Committee’s testing policy. Did you know the only sport they test the athletes for marijuana is snowboarding? Does this strike anybody else as a stereotype?

I mean, sure there are some people into snowboarding just because they want to be “cool.” And part of that may be doing the drugs the “cool” people do, but people competing in the Olympics are professional athletes, and if a drug does not enhance performance, it is not the Committee’s responsibility to test for it.

So, that brings us back to the question: Does marijuana enhance performance? Well, any way you look at it, I wouldn’t think it would. If you are a major pot fanatic, you may argue that it’s like milk or cold medicine, and that it wouldn’t really give you more of a boost than the above products. If you are a big time drug opponent, you may argue that hash causes hallucinations and damages the brain. Either way, marijuana is no anabolic steroid.

Of course, you might think that marijuana is just so awful that testing positive is a sin that not only justifies taking a medal away, but also warrants spending some time rotting in hell.

Well, then why are only snowboarders tested for marijuana usage? And hey, these guys are athletes, not role models for kids. It is a matter of choice whether they do something or not.

So I’m unhappy that the Olympic Committee had to test for marijuana in the first place. I’m unhappy that he had his medal stripped in the first place. I’m unhappy that the IOC had to try and legislate morality. I am happy that Ross Rebagliati got his medal back.

He deserved it, and it’s nice that the Canadians didn’t have to go through the whole Ben Johnson thing again. I agree that it’s stupid that he smoked or hung around people who smoked just before the biggest day of his life, but stupidity isn’t a crime as far as I know. I’m happy that the Canadians rallied around Rebagliati, especially those who are strongly opposed to drug use.

And most of all I’m happy that an athletic committee stopped trying to decide what’s right and what isn’t. I’m out!

Jayadev Athreya is a junior in mathematics and computer science from Ames.