Cannabis and sports

June 27, 2016 by sportingjim

The intersection of social media and sports medicine has been an interest of mine (and CJSM) for some time. Today, that relationship provides an opportunity to have the blog readers take a poll about a controversial subject: the potential medical benefits of marijuana (cannabis) for active National Football League (NFL) players.

Last week Derrick Morgan (@dmorg91), an NFL player for the Tennessee Titans, tweeted, “It’s time for @NFL to take an HONEST look into the potential medical benefits of Cannabis for its players #CBD #Research.” He and colleague Eurgene Moore were also interviewed by Katie Couric about the issue. You can see the video here.

The tweet generated a great deal of, er, buzz on social media. In the United States, 25 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes, but such legal protection does not contravene employer law — that is, it may be legal to use marijuana for chronic back pain in California, but your employer can still terminate you from your position if they perform drug tests on their employees. That is, the legal right to avoid criminal prosecution for use of marijuana does not prevent one from the requirement to participate in (and abide by) employer drug testing programs.

There are so many dimensions to this issue including the science itself about the purported benefits of cannabis, and the substance’s listing as a prohibited substance by anti-doping agencies.

But today I wanted to poll you, the readership, on the question somewhat narrowly drawn: are you in favor of NFL players using marijuana for medicinal purposes? I don’t intend by this poll to extend the question beyond the NFL (e.g. to Olympians), nor do I intend to enquire about the decriminalization of marijuana for recreational purposes for NFL players. Like the Brexit vote, you get only two options: yes or no.

Let us know!!!!

And don’t ‘Bregret’ your decision, bro.

p.s. By all means, aside from voting, if you want to comment on the broader issues of marijuana use in sports (is there science behind the claims, should other sports be open to use, etc.) please do so below in the blog comments section. Thank you!