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The NFL Needs to Change its Marijuana Policy Now

Eugene Monroe has asked the NFL to join the 21st century.

As of this writing 25 states along with Washington D.C. have laws on the books legalizing marijuana to some degree. Some states like Colorado have completely opened the door to full legalization where you can buy pot on virtually any street corner in the state. Others have made it legal to possess pot in varying amounts. Others have made “medical marijuana” legal where, if you get a card from your doctor you can pretty much do whatever the hell you want. This is America now and it’s just going to spread.

In the next 10 years pot will likely be legal in some form in all 50 states. Another 10 years after that and it’ll be something you can buy at the corner market with a pack of Bubblicious and a King Size Caramello. You, me, we all know this.

Recently Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle Eugene Monroe penned an essay in the The Players’ Tribune endorsing the use of “cannabinoids,” which is just a fancy medical term for marijuana to treat chronic pain and head injuries, instead of all the horrendous drugs, mainly opioides, that are perfectly legal and prescribed by NFL team doctors right now.

Think about that for a minute. Pot, or medicines derived from pot are illegal, but a medicine produced from the opium plant, creating the most addictive substances human beings have ever created on the planet is A-OK. Heroin is made from the opium plant, as is OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet and every other kind of pill your favorite rock star and celebrity has to go into rehab for once every two or three years.  It’s why if you live in a place like I do, Tennessee, every time you get into the car to drive to the grocery store you’re taking your life into your own hands.

But it’s not just opioides that players receive, legally, by the handful. Monroe opens his article talking about what he and his teammates call “The T-Train.” Each player that needs it, and there are always plenty of them, gather up in an area of the locker room with a trainer giving them a painkiller shot of Toradol to get through the game and after. Those that don’t take the shot, take a couple of Toradol pills and it lasts through the game, the next day and according to Monroe some guys don’t feel any pain for a few days after that.

Toradol is classified as an opioid substitute. Just as strong, it comes with its own potential side effects of gastrointestinal bleeding and perforation of the stomach an the intestines, which is fatal. Oh, and it can also give you a stroke. These players like Monroe get this shot every single week.

Marijuana, I don’t have to tell you, can replace all these much more dangerous and addictive drugs and the fact that it’s legal, right now, in half the country makes its continued ban completely ridiculous.

And it’s not just better for the health of the players to legalize pot, but it can help keep young players on the field. Guys who maybe don’t have the best judgement or discipline when it comes to pot like Cleveland Browns Josh Gordon, but none the less. He should be playing right now.

The fact is, we might make fun of a guy like Gordon, but we don’t know what he goes through when he’s not on the field. Is he in pain? Does he have some sort of depression issue he’s dealing with that hasn’t been diagnosed? The fact is if Josh Gordon left practice, bought a giant bottom of 100-proof vodka and downed the thing in a single night and survived it, no one on the Browns or in the NFL league office would give a damn. But the fact that he medicates with pot, something that’s as legal as a beer in half the country, costs him an entire season or more. It’s ridiculous.

And it’s time to change. It’s time for the NFL to wake up to the reality and the science. The NFL is in the midst of a class-action lawsuit right now as I type this from former players alleging the league pushed painkillers on them to play. They’ll probably lose that case and they should.

Remove the ban on marijuana in the league. Stop penalizing your own players and products and give your injured players a non-addictive, non-stroke-causing option to handle the pain they deal with to play the sport we all love.

Written by Adam Greene

Adam Greene is a writer and photographer based out of East Tennessee. His work has appeared on Cracked.com, in USA Today, the Associated Press, the Chicago Cubs Vineline Magazine, AskMen.com and many other publications.

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