Pubdate: Sun, 23 May 2004
Source: Palm Beach Post, The (FL)
Copyright: 2004 The Palm Beach Post
Contact:  http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/333
Author: Charles Elmore, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Cited: National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws http://www.norml.org
Cited: Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery http://www.addictionrecov.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Stepnoski
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?420 (Cannabis - Popular)

WHERE THERE'S SMOKE

Mark Stepnoski wants to see reefer madness end in the sports world.

Since retiring, Stepnoski has made little secret of his regular marijuana 
use during a 13-year NFL career that included two Super Bowl titles and 
five Pro Bowl appearances with the Dallas Cowboys. He viewed marijuana as 
an alternative to painkillers and a way to wind down. He knew other players 
who used it, too, though he says he has "no idea" of what percentage may do 
so leaguewide. Today he serves on the advisory board of the National 
Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws.

He knows that Dolphins running back Ricky Williams is facing a league fine 
of at least $650,000 for testing positive for a second time. He also knows 
that the punishment for the personal use of marijuana amounts to as little 
as a $100 fine in many states.

"Even though people who smoke marijuana in America are a minority, it's a 
fairly large minority -- tens of millions of people, " Stepnoski said from 
his home in Vancouver. "I wonder why athletes should be punished so harshly 
for doing something that while it's not commonplace, it's not incredibly 
rare, either."

Not everyone sees it the same way. The problem is not that the NFL is too 
harsh, but that pro sports generally need to stop blowing smoke and get 
tougher on what is, after all, an illegal drug, said William S. Jacobs, an 
assistant professor at the University of Florida who researches drug abuse.

"I believe the players in that situation have to be held to a different 
standard, just as we hold physicians and pilots to a different standard," 
Jacobs said. "It's not a big safety issue if they're impaired, but athletes 
are not McDonald's employees, either. Few kids look at a McDonald's 
employee and say I want to be like him. They certainly look at Ricky 
Williams and say I want to be like him."

For years, marijuana use in sports has been treated largely as a joke, with 
claims of widespread use and denials as hard to pin down as a cloud of smoke.

Olympic snowboarder Ross Rebagliati of Canada insisted he picked up 
secondhand smoke at a party before a positive drug test. His gold medal was 
stripped and reinstated at the Nagano Games six years ago amid confusion 
about testing agreements. "Next time I'll wear a gas mask," he said.

In the NBA, "you got guys out there playing high every night," former 
All-Star Charles Oakley said in 1998. "You got 60 percent of your league on 
marijuana. What can you do?"

Tug McGraw, the late relief pitcher, saw humor through all the haze. Asked 
if he preferred grass over Astroturf, McGraw replied: "I don't know -- I 
never smoked Astroturf."

For Williams, there is not so much to laugh about. He is appealing the 
possible surrender of four game paychecks after The Post reported last week 
that a second positive marijuana test found him barely over the limit last 
year.

Williams declined to discuss the case at last week's off-season training 
camp but said people "can judge for themselves" about his character: "They 
just have to look at the way I carry myself, look at the way I play the 
game, look at the way I practice and what I do in the community."

Williams' teammate, defensive tackle Larry Chester, has problems with a 
drug policy whose punishment distinguishes little between the use of 
marijuana or other illegal substances, like cocaine.

"They try to set the bar so that no matter what (substance), it's serious," 
he said. "The league says everything is bad."

Stepnoski also disagrees with league policy, but he does not give Williams 
a free pass for failing to follow the rules that are in place.

"I never flunked a drug test," Stepnoski said. "No marijuana infractions. 
I'm not one of those people supporting Ricky no matter what. I think you 
should do what you have to do within the system."

A player who wants to avoid a positive result can stop using marijuana 
several weeks before a three-month pre-season testing window. NFL players 
who come up clean are not tested again until the next year.

Dolphins safety Sammy Knight said the NFL's strict drug policy forces 
athletes to adhere to what Jacobs wants -- higher standards.

"Do they call you on vacation and tell you to meet them somewhere for a 
drug test?" Knight said. "Of course the rules are different for athletes."

Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League do not routinely test 
for marijuana. All the leagues allow testing "for cause" - if, for example, 
an athlete has been arrested for possession -- or if a player voluntarily 
comes forward to enter a treatment program.

Pressure To Test

Under pressure from congressional leaders and drug-policy officials, the 
NBA began testing for marijuana in 1999. Commissioner David Stern said at 
the time that cocaine had historically been a bigger problem for the 
league. "Marijuana is something society has struggled with and, in some 
jurisdictions, decriminalized," Stern said. "For us, there was the more 
important issue of the epidemic of crack and cocaine sweeping the country. 
If, in fact, marijuana is a problem in society, sports has the opportunity 
to lead rather than to hide."

The NBA began testing veteran players once a year, and players knew it 
would be in October, if not the exact day.

"Yet they would still get 10 or 20 players who would test positive," Jacobs 
said. "That speaks of a problem with guys who couldn't stop long enough not 
to get caught."

NBA spokesman Tim Frank said he could not discuss the number of players 
annually who test positive. The estimate of 10-15 players is based on media 
accounts that the league was not confirmed, but it would represent 3-4 
percent of NBA players. That is below Oakley's 60 percent estimate, but 
still a significant number considering players know testing is coming. 
Officials with the league's players' association declined to speak for the 
record.

Heat guard Bimbo Coles believes "about 2 percent" of the players use 
marijuana. "I don't see it as a huge problem in the NBA," said Coles, a 
14-year veteran. "I think if you looked around the percentages are probably 
no different than they are in society as a whole."

Teammate Samaki Walker agrees.

"I think most guys take their bodies seriously and they take their game 
seriously and when you have something like marijuana, something that's been 
proven to do damage to your body, I think guys stay away from it," Walker said.

In the NBA, a first positive test for marijuana requires entering a 
treatment program, with no fine or suspension. A second test brings a 
$15,000 fine. Suspensions can follow a third positive test. Sacramento's 
Chris Webber received a five-game suspension for an unspecified violation 
of the league's drug policy this spring. Webber was arrested twice on 
marijuana charges in 1998.

Teams can take their own action in the case of players who are arrested. 
Portland guard Damon Stoudamire was detained on marijuana charges after 
allegedly trying to pass through a Tucson, Ariz., airport metal detector 
with more than an ounce of the drug wrapped in aluminum foil. The Trail 
Blazers suspended Stoudamire and fined him $250,000 last year.

A first positive test in the NFL requires a player to enter a treatment 
program, which allows up to 10 random tests per month. A second positive 
test brings a fine equal to four games' pay, which Williams is facing now. 
A third means an unpaid four-game suspension.

An NFL spokesman said it is not accurate to say the league puts a 
"recreational" drug, marijuana, on par with a performance enhancer such as 
steroids. A first offense for steroids brings an automatic four-game 
suspension, the spokesman noted, while the first positive test for 
marijuana involves treatment but no automatic fine or suspension.

Several famous athletes have been arrested for marijuana possession, from 
former Bills and Dolphins running back Thurman Thomas to NBA career scoring 
leader Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

What's The Use?

Why do athletes use, anyway? For the same reasons as other people - for 
kicks, or in the hope of relieving pain, stress or depression, said Eric 
Zehr, vice president of addiction and behavioral services at the Illinois 
Institute for Addiction Recovery in Peoria.

"We work with professional athletes, whether it's football, basketball, 
racing or what have you," he said. "Typically, athletes we have treated 
have not been by and large any different from executives or anyone else 
we've treated."

Alcohol is probably the most common addiction for athletes treated at the 
institute, followed by narcotic painkillers, and marijuana follows 
somewhere after those, he said.

Williams has talked publicly about his social anxiety disorder, for which 
he has taken prescription medicine. It is not uncommon for athletes to seek 
stress relief by using marijuana. At the same time, emergency room doctors 
say they also see cases of panic attacks induced by marijuana, which can 
bring on a sense of paranoia in some users.

Medical experts have sometimes disagreed as to how addictive marijuana is, 
but Zehr said he does consider the drug addictive, both physically and 
psychologically. Some players may say they only use marijuana off the field 
or court, but what they may not realize is how long the active ingredient 
in marijuana, THC, can stay in the body, Zehr said.

"It gets stored in the fat and released," Zehr said. "It varies by the 
person and by the amount of body fat, but someone may be under the 
influence and not even realize it for up to 30 days."

Studies with pilots have shown impairment on flight simulators 20 hours 
after marijuana use, even though the subjects believed the effects were 
completely gone in four hours, Jacobs said. The drug can affect short-term 
memory, motor control and balance, he said. The act of inhaling smoke 
carries heart and lung dangers of its own.

Stepnoski responded, "You can find all kinds of medical evidence that it's 
less harmful than alcohol or tobacco. To me that's the case in a nutshell."

The fact that marijuana is illegal is "an arbitrary judgment not based on 
science or medicine. It's an arbitrary political judgment," Stepnoski said.

But in view of those like Jacobs, leagues and players should take a tougher 
stand -- if not for their own players, then for the millions of young fans 
who watch them.

"I would like the players' associations to step up and be responsible and 
assume a leadership role in this country and provide the kinds of role 
models I would want my kids to be like -- not role models that encourage 
kids to do things that are illegal and dangerous for their health," Jacobs 
said. 
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