The Turkish Basketball Federation (TBL) today announced that it has imposed a one-year ban on Galatasaray’s Stephane Lasme.
The Federation came to its decision following the player’s positive drug test during the 2016 Turkish League finals.
During a random doping test, the substance “Carboxy-THC” was found after the fourth semi-final match between Galatasaray and Fenerbahce for the Turkish Basketball Super League and after the third quarter-final match against Pinar Karsiyaka.
Part of the Statement from the TBL (obtained by EuroHoops):
Lasme said he took that substance (Carboxy-THC) at his daughter’s birthday. He didn’t intend increase his performance. He didn’t want to open his sample B. He said that few days passed between two incidents so it could be take as one incident. Federation consulted a Drug Control Center and then it was found that he took that Carboxy-THC substance twice. The Federation informed the player after his first failure (Pinar Karsiyaka match), as it could be seen also from documents. But after his second failure (Fenerbahce match) he got one year suspension plus 50k Turkish liras fine. His suspension period started on 13.06.2016.”
