Adam Silver Believes NBA Players Have "Mixed Feelings" on Marijuana, Offers Nuanced Take on the Issue
Slow news day, if we’re being honest.
But I found this interesting, another weed story. I feel like marijuana is a hot topic these days.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver recently sat down with Chris Haynes, who does the “Posted Up” podcast, and the pair discussed a variety of league topics. Pot came up, and I thought this response was nuanced and reasonable:
🚨NEW POSTED UP W/ HAYNES POD🚨
NBA commish Adam Silver on Finals, Lakers, fan-player behavior, Pels ordeal w/ AD, stance on marijuana use, LeBron’s impact on ratings, talking to Drake, media’s role in supermax & more.
🎥: https://t.co/yGCB65PApk
🎙️: https://t.co/9tavmRMnvj pic.twitter.com/OP3HgIzzZ4— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) May 30, 2019
Silver on marijuana use, after the jump:
Few issues there; one is, of course, it has to be collectively bargained, so it’s something that we are talking to (Executive Director) Michele Roberts and the Players Association about what our policy should be. You might be surprised about this, but when I’ve talked to players about it, I think they have mixed feelings, some players. I think it’s not as much about what a guy is doing in the summer. They want to smoke pot in the summer? Whatever, it’s legal in a lot of states, to your point. No issue. I do think there’s a little bit of a concern about some of the pot smoking in season. Sometimes that, you know it’s uncool that the league still tests for marijuana, and I think that that’s not exactly where the state of the science on marijuana is. I think that, clear to the extent it has medicinal qualities – those are things we should be looking at, where it’s in terms of pain relief. Of course, you know? And that’s something that’s being studied, not just by us. The NFL recently announced they’re studying that issue as well, and we should look at it.
But I also, last part of this, I think when we change our policy, we have to be very careful because clearly we’re going to be sending a message to a lot of young people. And at the end of the day I think we all agree that whether or not, you know, marijuana is a legal substance, just like with alcohol you still have to teach young people how to use substances like that appropriately and responsibly, so it doesn’t overwhelm your life. It’s a complicated issue.
I like that answer. He’s open to considerations for the medicinal side of marijuana while noting that this is something that needs to be part of the collective bargaining agreement. He’s also wary of sending the wrong message to young folks, i.e. just because your favorite player now smokes weed, it doesn’t mean you drop out of high school to smoke the ganja. It’s not about getting stoned 24/7, it’s more about common sense discussion, perhaps de-stigmatizing the Maui Wowie and allowing its use for practical purposes.
It’s similar, in a way, to what Long was talking about, this idea of opening up the conversation and having a real dialogue about marjiuana use, vs. becoming a modern day Cheech Marin or Tommy Chong: