<\/p>\n
\nTukaha Cooper of the Southland Sharks, 2025.
\nPhoto: PHOTOSPORT\n<\/p>\n
Breakers development player Tukaha Cooper has been banned from basketball for a month after testing positive for cannabis.<\/p>\n
The Sport Integrity Commission Te Kahu Raunui tested Cooper after the Southland Sharks National Basketball League game against Saints in Wellington on 20 July.<\/p>\n
The commission’s statement said the 23-year-old later admitted recreational use of cannabis.<\/p>\n
The commission accepted that the use was out-of-competition and unrelated to sporting performance.<\/p>\n
Cannabis is banned under the Substances of Abuse category in the Sports Anti-Doping Rules, which acknowledge that some substances are used outside of sport.<\/p>\n
Cooper incurred a one-month sanction, backdated to 24 October 2025, on the condition that he complete a treatment plan for substance abuse.<\/p>\n
The athlete has completed the treatment programme and is now eligible to return to sport.<\/p>\n
Commission chief executive Rebecca Rolls said the approach under the Substances of Abuse category reflected a balance between supporting athlete health and maintaining the integrity of competition.<\/p>\n
She noted that while the pathway was supportive, cannabis is still banned in sport.<\/p>\n
“We encourage athletes to make informed choices and reach out for help when needed,” said Basketball New Zealand chief executive officer Belinda Edwards.<\/p>\n
Cooper has not played for the Breakers during the current NBL season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tukaha Cooper of the Southland Sharks, 2025. Photo: PHOTOSPORT Breakers development player Tukaha Cooper has been banned from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-153944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}