Pubdate: Fri, 23 Apr 2010
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: Aditi Kinkhabwala

THERE'S GRASS ON THE FOOTBALL FIELD

Despite Stiff Penalties, More Incoming Players Cop to Using 
Marijuana; Some Calls for Medical Use

As the NFL Draft gets under way, one of the hot topics inside the 
league is the growing number of top prospects who have admitted 
smoking pot or have been caught doing so. Based on information 
obtained from NFL team executives, agents, scouts and trainers, just 
under one-third of the 327 players who attended this year's NFL 
pre-draft scouting camp, or combine, had some incident involving 
marijuana turn up in interviews or background checks-which NFL teams 
collect and share before and during the event.

This number represents a 30% increase from the season before.

The NFL and its players union declined to comment on these totals. 
While it's impossible to know how many current NFL players smoke pot, 
there have been several incidents in recent years involving 
high-profile NFL players. In 2006, Ricky Williams of the Miami 
Dolphins, a former Heisman Trophy winner, was suspended for one year 
by the NFL after testing positive for violating the league's 
substance-abuse policy for a fourth time. (He's said publicly he has 
used marijuana.) Last year, according to two people familiar with the 
situation, Percy Harvin-a wide receiver for the Minnesota 
Vikings-tested positive for marijuana at the draft combine.

In 2008, the same season that he was named Super Bowl MVP for the 
Pittsburgh Steelers, wide receiver Santonio Holmes was charged with 
marijuana possession, although charges were dropped in 2009. (Messrs. 
Williams, Harvin and Holmes did not return calls for comment.)

Kyle Turley, a former All-Pro lineman who retired in 2008, says he 
smoked marijuana at times throughout his 10-year NFL career.

NFL players are only tested once for marijuana, between April and 
August, he says, so he stayed clean before the test and then felt 
free to smoke afterwards. He says he did so to relax and to help keep 
up his appetite to maintain his playing weight. "I know half the 
building of every NFL team smokes pot, or has, but it's so taboo 
nobody will say it," he says. Mark Stepnoski, a former five-time Pro 
Bowl center who once served as president of the Texas chapter of the 
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, says he 
regularly used the drug during his playing career. For him, marijuana 
wasn't about recreational enjoyment-it was a means of pain 
management. "It would just make me feel better," he says.

While the overall rate of pot smoking among the NFL's draft prospects 
isn't out of line with the number of U.S. adults (41% by one recent 
study) who say they've tried the drug, the number of incoming players 
with marijuana histories is a source of concern for NFL teams.

The NFL's penalties for marijuana use are among the most severe in 
professional team sports, and a player who's likely to test positive 
can hurt a team's chances.

William Thomas, a former Pro Bowl NFL linebacker who works as a scout 
for the Oakland Raiders, says NFL teams recognize "marijuana is a 
drug that more people have tried. It happens." What the Raiders have 
to figure out, he says, is whether it's likely to be an ongoing 
issue. In any case, Mr. Thomas says, "It's definitely a mark against you."

As debate on this subject continues, however, there is one question 
that hasn't been widely considered. At a time when 14 states have 
made cannabis a legal medical option-and more than a dozen more have 
pending legislation or ballot measures to legalize medical 
marijuana-is it possible the NFL and its players union could consider 
allowing some players to take the drug if they can get legal 
perscriptions? Given the painful nature of football, the chronic 
injuries it can produce and the increasing availability of medical 
cannabis, a growing chorus of former NFL players and physicians who 
prescribe marijuana says pot should be considered as a treatment for 
the most common ailments football players face.

Mr. Stepnoski believes marijuana is a better treatment than many 
prescription painkillers. "If given the choice, I think guys would be 
much better off taking a cannabis extract," he says. Mr. Turley, the 
former lineman, says it's "ridiculous that the NFL makes such a big 
deal out of a plant that has real medicinal values."

Frank Lucido, a primary-care physician in Berkeley, Calif., who has 
two former NFL players as patients, says he believes marijuana is 
practically designed for football ailments, which range from 
headaches to depression to effects of violent contact. "The most 
common thing I see in NFL players is chronic orthopedic pain," he 
says. In California, doctors are allowed to prescribe marijuana to 
any patient whose health they believe would be improved-and Dr. 
Lucido says football players could qualify for treatment. "I say 
marijuana should not be a banned substance [in the NFL]. It has too 
many medical benefits."

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello says the league has had "no discussion" 
with its medical advisors or the players union about changing the 
league's marijuana policy. "The program supports the health and 
safety of our players and the integrity of our game," he says. Mr. 
Aiello added that the league doesn't grant therapeutic use exemptions 
for medical marijuana.

He said the league's medical advisers say it is "extremely unlikely" 
that a person would have a condition that requires this medication 
and would also be able to play professional football.

Victor Prisk is a sports-medicine orthopedic surgeon at the 
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center who has treated 
college-football players. He believes cannabis might be helpful for 
people with the kind of neuropathic pain related to multiple 
sclerosis-but he's not certain it should be used for the sort of 
musculoskeletal pain that NFL players endure. Dr. Prisk says it could 
be argued that cannabis may be a performance-enhancing drug. "It can 
increase appetite for a lineman who needs to put on weight," he says.

Not all NFL teams view marijuana equally. One college lineman who was 
projected to be picked in the first round of the draft Thursday 
identified himself as one of the players from the combine who 
admitted trying marijuana. When he told the teams, he said their 
reactions were wildly different. "Some really didn't care, some went 
crazy over it," the player said. "Honestly, it doesn't help you play 
better, it just relaxes you after."

One five-year NFL veteran said he would be wary of allowing medical 
exemptions for marijuana use. "What if it also leads to laziness and 
lack of responsibility?" he asks. "What if you become so relaxed, you 
want to stay in that state too often?"

Marijuana isn't without risks. The government classifies it as a 
Schedule I drug, meaning it has a high tendency for abuse.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse says marijuana can impair 
coordination, and the center cites studies that show marijuana smoke 
contains carcinogens that can cause some of the same respiratory 
problems as those suffered by tobacco smokers.

There is one football league where players are not tested for 
marijuana-the Canadian Football League. Tad Kornegay, a linebacker 
with the Saskatchewan Roughriders says at least half of his teammates 
are open about smoking pot. "They say they do it for stress, and 
because they feel like they don't hurt as bad," he says. "Nobody 
comes to practice high."

Tony Villani, a trainer who has worked with 70 NFL prospects over the 
past eight years, says he hasn't seen any difference in the on-field 
work habits of players who admit to smoking pot. "There's no 
correlation," he says. 
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