Hi, John—More than 220,000 MoveOn members have signed on to demand that world-class runner Sha'Carri Richardson's suspension be lifted and that the outdated rules around marijuana and athletes be revisited. Will you add your name?
Sign the petition: Let Sha'Carri run!
Dear MoveOn member,
Sha’Carri Richardson is one of the fastest athletes in the world—and would have a real chance of winning the 100-meter sprint in the Summer Olympics this month for the United States.
However, due to an outdated and arbitrarily enforced rule around marijuana, she's now going to be kept from competing on the world stage.
In no world is marijuana a performance-enhancing drug for runners, and in more places in the United States and around the world, marijuana use is legal. The United States Anti-Doping Agency should drop their penalty and allow Richardson to compete!
There are many reasons to have rules against performance-enhancing drugs, but this one is absurd.
The imposition of a penalty against a world-class Black, queer, woman athlete is powerfully and infuriatingly reminiscent of the way drug laws are regularly applied in the United States. Recreational marijuana use has been de facto legal for upper-middle-class white people for years—something more states are recognizing as they legalize marijuana for all people and consider how to repair the damage done to Black and brown communities by decades of the "war on drugs."
The world is coming together for a Summer Olympics postponed by a global pandemic. and we deserve to see the best athletes in fair, open competition. That includes Sha'Carri Richardson, whose one-month penalty is excessively punitive for an irrational, outdated rule.
Let Sha'Carri run!
Thanks!
–Isbah, Justin, David, Mohammad, and the rest of the team
You're receiving this petition because we thought it might interest you. It was created on MoveOn.org, where anyone can start their own online petitions. You can start your own petition here.
Want to support our work? Together, we made Donald Trump a one-term president! Now, it's time to expand access to health care, fight for citizenship for the undocumented, reform policing, and tackle the climate crisis.
Will you chip in to power the fight for bold, progressive change?
Click here to chip in $3, or whatever you can afford.
Contributions to MoveOn Civic Action are not tax-deductible for income tax purposes. This email was sent to John xxxxxx on July 3, 2021. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. MoveOn's privacy policy was recently updated. To read our new privacy policy, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.