Pubdate: Tue, 09 Sep 2014
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2014 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Nate Jackson
Note: Nate Jackson is the author of "Slow Getting Up: A Story of 
N.F.L. Survival From the Bottom of the Pile."

THE N.F.L.'S ABSURD MARIJUANA POLICY

LOS ANGELES - VIRTUALLY every single player in the N.F.L. has a 
certifiable need for medical marijuana.

The game we celebrate creates a life of daily pain for those who play 
it. Some players choose marijuana to manage this pain, which allows 
them to perform at a high level without sacrificing their bodies or 
their minds.

I medicated with marijuana for most of my career as a tight end from 
2003 through 2008. And I needed the medication. I broke my tibia, 
dislocated my shoulder, separated both shoulders, tore my groin off 
the bone once and my hamstring off the bone twice, broke fingers and 
ribs, tore my medial collateral ligament, suffered brain trauma, etc. 
Most players have similar medical charts. And every one of them needs 
the medicine.

Standard pain management in the N.F.L. is pain pills and pregame 
injections. But not all players favor the pill and needle approach. 
In my experience, many prefer marijuana. The attitude toward weed in 
the locker room mirrors the attitude in America at large. It's not a 
big deal. Players have been familiar with it since adolescence, and 
those who use it do so to offset the brutality of the game. The fact 
that they made it to the N.F.L. at all means that their marijuana use 
is under control.

Had marijuana become a problem for me, it would have been reflected 
in my job performance, and I would have been cut. I took my job 
seriously and would not have allowed that to happen. The point is, 
marijuana and excellence on the playing field are not mutually exclusive.

A good example is Josh Gordon, the Cleveland Browns wide receiver who 
led the league last year with 1,646 receiving yards, despite missing 
two games for testing positive for codeine (for a strep throat, he 
said). He was suspended again late last month for the entire season 
after testing positive for marijuana. (At least five others were also 
suspended last year and this year for marijuana, according to the 
magazine Mother Jones.)

Most players are tested once a year under the N.F.L.'s substance 
abuse policy, between April 20 and Aug. 9. But players who test 
positive for a banned drug are placed in the league's substance abuse 
program, where the testing is more frequent. It is in this 
probationary program that players tend to falter.

Gordon had marijuana in his system. He broke the rules. I understand 
that. But this is a rule that absurdly equates marijuana with 
opiates, opioids and PCP. The N.F.L.'s threshold for disciplinary 
action for marijuana is 10 times higher than the one used by the 
International Olympic Committee.

Nearly 17,000 Americans overdosed and died from prescription 
painkillers in 2011, according to the most recent figures from the 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These are the same pills 
I was handed in full bottles after an injury. The same pills that are 
ravaging our cities. The same ones that are creating a population of 
apathetic adults, pill-popping their way through the day and dead 
behind the eyes. The same ones that are leading high schoolers to 
heroin because the pills no longer get them high and are too 
expensive. Yeah, those.

And there's Josh Gordon, one of the planet's most successful 
athletes. He is fit enough to run dozens of offensive plays a game 
and torch world-class athletes in the process. He memorizes 
complicated playbooks every week, learns sign language, remembers the 
coded language the quarterback uses when switching a play at the last 
second and adheres to militaristic itineraries of life in the N.F.L. 
He seems like a man in full control of his faculties.

In my playing days, the marijuana smokers struck me as sharper, more 
thoughtful and more likely to challenge authority than the 
nonsmokers. It makes me wonder if we weren't that way because 
marijuana allowed us to avoid the heavy daze of pain pills. It gave 
us clarity. It kept us sane.

The social tide is turning regarding marijuana. As of July, 35 states 
and the District of Columbia permit some form of medical marijuana, 
and 18 states and the District of Columbia have decriminalized it.

Professional football is a violent trade that could use some forward 
thinking. The N.F.L. and the N.F.L. Players Association, which agreed 
to the league's substance abuse policy in collective bargaining, 
should rethink their approach. The policy reflects outdated views on 
marijuana and pain management, punishes players who seek an 
alternative to painkillers, keeps them in a perpetual state of injury 
and injury management, and risks creating new addicts.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom