EVER since Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr admitted to using marijuana to help with his chronic back pain, the subject of the drug’s use has been a hot topic in the NBA.

The latest player to be asked about his opinion is Australian centre, Andrew Bogut, who admits he’s never tried it, but not for a lack of trying.

“I’ve never really gotten high in my life,” Bogut said, via ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.

“I thought I had some weed as a kid, but I think the guy sold me regular grass.”

Thursday September 24th

The always-candid Bogut, who claims he’s not politically right nor left — instead, he’s ‘common sense’ — doesn’t have a fixed stance on the issue, but he weighed the pros and cons of what reducing restrictions of the use of marijuana could do for the league.

“I’ve never tried it. I don’t know how much it helps, but from what I heard from guys who are retired and have chronic injuries, they say it helps a lot,” Bogut said.

Dallas Mavericks' Andrew Bogut. Source: AP

“Like I said, you are bringing a big can of worms if you allow it [without restrictions]. If you have open season, you’re going to have guys, I guarantee you’re going to have people playing in a game or practising high. It’s just the reality of it.

“You have guys in pro sports playing hungover. You have guys come to practice drunk sometimes. That’s how it is. If you all of the sudden can smoke, although there are a lot of positives to it, the downside is you could possibly have a lot of guys that are not 100 percent in the present. I think that’s why the league is saying what it’s saying.”

So, when it comes to allowing NBA players to use the drug, Bogut is undecided. But, when it comes to legalising it across the country — and presumably the world — the Dallas Mavericks big-man is more frank.

“As far as it being legal in society, it should be fine to be legal,” Bogut said. “It’s a plant, it’s an herb, it’s a weed.”

The 32-year-old’s comments mirrored those of his former teammate, Draymond Green, who also claimed the drug should be legal because ‘any vegetable that comes from the earth, they encourage you to eat it’.

There’s no telling what direction the NBA may lean with this issue, but, considering how progressive the league’s actions and rhetoric have been in recent years, it wouldn’t be surprising if they follow the lead of the likes of Colorado, Washington, and Oregon — some of the country’s more liberal states — in allowing the drug to be used.

Olgun Uluc covers basketball for Fox Sports Australia. Twitter: @OlgunUluc