Iditarod musher loses winnings after testing positive for pot

Matt Giblin placed 38th in the Iditarod earlier this year, good enough to win a $1,049 prize for finishing the Alaskan dog sled race. However, now he reportedly needs to repay all of that after testing positive for marijuana.

Giblin, of Juneau, Alaska, reportedly tested positive in April but appealed the results. On Thursday, race officials announced that the appeals board upheld the test. He becomes the first musher to be busted under the race’s three-year-old testing program and is now listed as disqualified in the results of the 2012 race, which ended in March.

That the organizers of the Iditarod drug test the mushers is a bit curious because you probably have to be on drugs to want to go on a two-week dog sled race through the Alaskan wilderness during the dead of winter. The Anchorage Daily News offers this explanation:

Iditarod officials began testing mushers for illegal drugs during the 2010 race. Former champion Lance Mackey, a throat-cancer survivor who has admitted to smoking marijuana in the past, said at the time he believed the rule was spurred by jealous competitors.

Well, whatever “jealous” means, we now know you can’t smoke weed if you want to be in the Iditarod. The next question is obviously whether this also applies to the dogs.

H/T Sports by Brooks Live
Photo: Alaskan Dude/Flickr