Should NFL reconsider stance on marijuana? by Dani Bostick SI.com 4h ago 
In Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and the District of Columbia, recreational use of marijuana is legal. In two dozen other states, medical use of marijuana is allowed. In the NFL, however, testing positive for THC lands a player in a substance abuse intervention program and subsequent positive tests lead to increasingly long suspensions without pay.Most recently, Pittsburgh Steelers breakout wide receiver Martavis Bryant was suspended for four games for using marijuana. Cleveland Browns receiver Josh Gordon is suspended indefinitely for continuing to test positive for the drug. Countless other players have placed in the same substance abuse program as players who abuse meth, cocaine, and heroin for using a drug that is legal in several states and has documented therapeutic benefits for pain, anxiety, and other maladies. In some ways, marijuana is less dangerous than many of the most commonly prescribed painkillers and alcohol.Is it time for the NFL to revisit its policy on marijuana? The league and the players union, the NFLPA already has in the 2014 collective bargaining agreement both parties endorsed. Now, a player can have up to 35 parts per billion in his system instead of a threshold of 15 parts per billion. Compare that to the World Anti-Doping Agency standards that allow athletes to have up to 150 parts per billion in their system before it counts as a failed test.Marijuana is still illegal on a federal level and employers have the right to create and enforce policies about drug use. Nonetheless, treating marijuana use almost identically to other more dangerous, addictive, and harmful drugs seems unnecessarily harsh.The NFL has two separate policies for performance-enhancing substances and recreational drugs. Clearly if a drug gives a player an unfair advantage, it can compromise the integrity of the game. Hence, six-game suspensions and longer bans for subsequent violations serve a purpose – they are both a deterrent and a fair consequence for cheating.Marijuana does not enhance performance, and it can provide relief from both pain and anxiety in an arguably safer and more gentle way than opioid painkillers (such as Vicodin) and benzodiazepines (such as Valium), both of which are addictive and have been proven to have adverse long-term effects. Even Commissioner Roger Goodell has indicated he is hope to endorsing the use of medical marijuana in the league, saying via USA Today, “I’m not a medical expert. We will obviously follow medicine and if they determine this could be a proper usage in any context, we will consider that.”NFL players who test positive for marijuana end up stigmatized and drug users for partaking of a substance that is legal recreationally in four states and medically in many others. For repeated violations, they can also end up facing draconian consequences more stringent than the ones in place for egregious personal misconduct.Workplace policies are part of most organizations, but it could be time for the NFL and NFLPA to revisit the severity of consequences for marijuana. Since the NFL warns players about the testing date and gives them time to get clean, passing a drug test is more indicative of strong executive functioning and planning skills, and less of an indication of player’s abstinence from weed.
Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon has violated the NFL’s substance abuse policy multiple times.Testing windows for drug use are very limited, so if a player passes a drug test in the offseason or preseason, it is unlikely he will be tested again until the following year. Gordon was already on the league’s radar when he was drafted since he got in trouble for smoking marijuana in college. Pre-NFL drug abuse or troublesome behavior can also land a player in the intervention program. Other players come to the program after failing the initial drug test. Program participation is the only consequence at this point.The intervention program involves an action plan and more frequent testing, giving players who get caught with THC in their systems a wake up call and chance to stop with support from the league. Or, further opportunities to fail tests. Gordon estimates that during his first two years in the league he was subjected to 180 drug tests. He failed several, but had he been tested by the World Anti-Doping Agency his THC levels would have been low enough to pass.The more tests players fail, the longer their suspensions become until they are suspended indefinitely. That is the situation Gordon has found himself in, suspended for the 2015 season, after failing multiple tests, one of which registered 16 nanograms per milliliter, only one nanogram over the threshold, which has since been raised to 30 nanograms per milliliter.An addition complication, however, is that the league cannot verify, confirm, or release any information about a players test results or treatment. Employees who violate this policy are subject to $500,000 fines. So, in the case of Gordon, and many other athletes, the only source of information is the athlete himself.While that test was barely over the limit, it is important to note that Gordon has also been arrested for driving while impaired. Meanwhile, the Browns are without their talented receiver who could have helped them become stronger competitors in the AFC North.
Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell and receiver Martavis Bryant are both facing marijuana-related suspensions at the beginning of the 2015 season. These suspensions are a huge blow to the Steelers offense because of Bell’s productivity on the ground and effectiveness at blocking along with the threat Bryant provides in tandem with receiver Antonio Brown.The perplexing piece about these suspensions is that Bell just saw his suspension reduced from four games to two, while Bryant is serving his full four-game suspension. The difference between these two men? Bell was arrested for driving while under the influence while Bryant’s infraction involved repeated failed tests.It is hard to believe that Bell got caught the only time he partook of marijuana, so even if he were in an early stage of the intervention program (or not yet in it), his lack of previous failed tests is not an indication of his actual marijuana use.Bryant on the other hand, was not arrested for driving while under the influence, yet faces a longer suspension because he was caught more often smoking. It is also worth noting that Ray Rice was only suspended for two games because of his arrest for domestic violence.
A final ironic twist is that former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, who was never suspended for a drug-related infraction during his time in the NFL. If he was in the intervention program, the public would not know that because of confidentiality policies, but we would know if he faced a drug-related suspension.Hernandez is now in prison for the murder of Odin Lloyd. During the trial, Hernandez’s marijuana use was brought up often. In fact, there was a blunt with DNA belonging to the former NFL player at the scene of the murder and much testimony about his marijuana use. This included testimony from one of Hernandez’s dealers, Alexander Bradley- whom incidentally Hernandez has been accused of injuring via shooting. Bradley testified that Hernandez smoked around an ounce a day.Yet, he never served an NFL suspension for drug use.So, to recap, we have Bryant serving a four-game suspension for using marijuana, Bell suspended two games for driving while under the influence of marijuana, and Gordon out for at least this year for multiple failed tests. And, somehow, a man who was said to have chain-smoked blunts never failed enough drug tests to see a suspension.Curious.
