A Look at Weed in Sports

This coming Friday is April 20, the day known as the unofficial day to light one up and tag a drag and drift off to feel good land.

Marijuana is still a very much talked about topic in the world of sports, let alone talked about in general.

There many athletes that use marijuana for various reasons.

In an interview on “The Simms and Lefkoe Podcast,” Martellus Bennett said that nearly 89 percent of NFL players smoke marijuana.

This doesn’t mean that they sit around smoking all day, but maybe they do so once a week or on occasion, not an everyday thing.

Bennett would go on and say, “There’s medical marijuana so there are times of the year where your body just hurts so bad that you don’t want to be just popping pills all the time.

Bennett also added that the anti-inflammatories you take will start to eat your liver or kidneys.

“A human made (the pills),” Bennett added. “God made weed.”

Despite some states passing the legal use of marijuana, it is still a crime in other states to possess weed.

While some players are already using marijuana, the NFL continues to test for it. A positive test result could cost a player at least four games.

Star wide receiver Josh Gordon is one such player that has had trouble with using marijuana.

Gordon has been arrested and in and out of the league ever since he was drafted in the second round of the 2012 supplemental draft.

Gordon was suspended for his fourth violation during the 2014 season. A season-long suspension was the result of the violation. Though reduced to 10 games, Gordon was suspended for violation of team rules for the final game. Another drug violation led to another year long suspension. The following year, he briefly left the team to go to an in-patient rehabilitation center. He returned this past 2017 season during the last five games after missing two full seasons.

Gordon’s history of marijuana started back in October 2010 when police found weed in Baylor University teammate Willie Jefferson’s car. Jefferson was kicked off the team, while Gordon was only suspended.

In July 2011, Gordon was suspended by Baylor head coach Art Briles after failing a drug test for marijuana.

An athlete that used marijuana who is not your stereotypical football or basketball player is Michael Phelps.

In 2009, a photo of Phelps hitting a bong came to service. The incident was after Phelps came off his history-making performance at the 2008 Beijing Olympics where we won eight gold medals.

At the time, some called for Phelps to be stripped of his medals. With marijuana not being a performance-enhancing drug, I didn’t see why he would have to back then. All Phelps had to do was admit that photo was him and apologize for his actions, saying that his behavior was poor judgment.

Looking at his career now, he was very successful and learned from his mistake. He is a guy you look at and have respect for. Yes, he made a mistake, but all humans do that.

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