NFL Open to Studying Marijuana as Part of Newly Established "Joint Pain Management Committee"
It was Philadelphia native Bob Saget, appearing in the critically-acclaimed, Half Baked, who once said, “Marijuana is not a drug. I used to suck **** for coke.”
Seems like the NFL is going to follow suit and adopt Saget’s stance on alternative medicine, as described today in a press release that introduces two joint agreements to “address pain management and behavioral health.”
They are called:
- Joint Pain Management Committee – which will include “medical experts appointed by both the league and union, which will establish uniform standards for club practices and policies regarding pain management and the use of prescription medication by NFL players as well as conduct research concerning pain management and alternative therapies”
- Comprehensive Mental Health and Wellness Committee – this group will “develop educational programs for players, coaches, club personnel and players’ family members regarding mental health and wellness”
“Marijuana” is not written specifically in the release, but Mark Maske at The Washington Post talked to the NFL’s Chief Medical Officer, Allen Sills, who said the league will indeed study the Swedish cheebah, after the jump:
“I think it’s a proud day for the NFL and the NFLPA to come together on these issues in a very public way,” Allen Sills, the league’s chief medical officer, said in a phone interview. “I think it demonstrates the spirit of cooperation we have around our health and safety issues …. Both of these committees are about providing the best health care we can to players.”
…
“We’re asking our pain management committee to bring us any and all suggestions,” Sills said. “We’ll look at marijuana.”
Marijuana remains on the league’s list of banned substances. Players are tested for it and can be suspended for positive tests. But some players and former players have said that marijuana helps to cope with the rigors of playing the violent sport and have called for the NFL to relax its standards in that area.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said in the past that the league would consider allowing players to use marijuana for pain management only if that practice were to be established as valid by medical and scientific experts. Goodell previously has said that such medical and scientific evidence has not yet reached the point at which a sufficiently convincing case can be made to allow players to use marijuana for pain management.
Alright, look, on a serious note, I don’t think a little bit of weed hurt anybody, especially not NFL players who are beating each other’s brains out and just looking for a little bit of relief. David Irving recently quit football (while smoking a blunt) and went on a small diatribe about the league’s attitude towards ganja.
Said Irving at the time:
It’s funny, you know, some people (say) ‘Oh, you’re addicted to weed, you’re addicted to this and that,’ he said. I mean, shit, if I’m gonna be addicted to something, I’d rather be addicted to marijuana, which is medical — it’s a medicine; I do not consider it a drug — rather than Xanax bars or the hydros or the seroquel and all that crazy shit that they feed you.
Fair point, David Irving.
Regardless of how you feel about marijuana, I’d say it’s an overarching positive that the NFL is putting more time and effort into the health and well-being of its players. Mental health, pain management, openness to new ideas, etc – that’s all a big step forward for a league that is typically behind the NBA and other organizations when it comes these types of things.