In recognition of Cannabis Culture Day on July 10th, the Marijuana Policy Project takes a look at America’s athletes and their use of medical cannabis treatments. More and more cannabis use among athletes is being revealed. Increasingly, professional athletes have turned to the plant to reduce pain from post-game injuries and to help speed recovery.

Thanks to athletes, the decimation of the stereotype of cannabis users as lazy stoners has begun. With 38 states and the District of Columbia having adopted laws making cannabis legal for medical use, an increasing number of elite athletes are stepping forward to proclaim their cannabis advocacy. Removing this stereotype overturns decades of stigmatization of cannabis as a gateway drug that leads to the abuse of more dangerous drugs like methamphetamine and heroin. This new wave of sports-world acceptance puts cannabis forward as a “biohack,” a plant-based alternative to opioid pain-relief drugs.

Athletes have noted CBD oils have helped with the healing process and inflammation from sports injuries, as well as easing the symptoms of chronic pain and anxiety. Additionally, there are studies that suggest that CBD may help improve sleep in people with certain sleep disorders.

This Cannabis Culture Day, MPP continues the fight to ensure medical cannabis is legal across the country as well as recreational cannabis for those 21 or older. Cannabis has the potential to manage pain, improve sleep and recovery time, reduce inflammation and more. Athletes, like every other American, should be able to use cannabis to treat these ailments as an alternative to prescription pills.

Also, this Cannabis Culture Day, MPP salutes some of the athletes who are in the forefront of removing the stigma associated with cannabis use:

Eugene Monroe - Former NFL Offensive Tackle

Eugene retired from the NFL to spend more time with his family and focus on his health. He found that cannabis helped him deal with the pain he was struggling with from shoulder and knee injuries. Now he is a partner at a medical cannabis company. (Marcin, 2018) (Rafferty, 2017)

Ricky Williams - Former NFL/CFL Football Running Back

During his football career, Ricky struggled with balancing his cannabis use with the rules of the NFL. He took time to learn about the benefits of cannabis and is now an advocate for cannabis and uses it for both mental and physical healing. (Poole, 2022)

JR Smith - Former NBA player

During the 2020 NBA Bubble, basketball players like JR Smith began consuming cannabis. Smith said that cannabis helped him and other players tap into the proper mindset they need to play and allowed them to be in tune with their bodies. (Callas, 2022)

Sha'Carri Richardson - Track & Field Athlete

After the loss of her mother, Sha’Carri used cannabis to manage her mental health. She struggled with mental issues in high school and at LSU. Through all of the harsh blowback, she maintains her belief that cannabis is beneficial for mental health. (Reid, 2022)

Kareem Abdul Jabbar - Former NBA player

Throughout his career with the NBA, Kareem came under fire many times for his cannabis use. He has explained that cannabis helps him alleviate his chronic migraines and nausea. (Thompson, 2022)

Allen Iverson - Former NBA player

After years of avoiding any public association with cannabis due to his history with the NBA and a prior arrest, Iverson recently entered the cannabis industry with fellow baller Al Harrington. He now is an advocate for cannabis and believes cannabis can help Black people manage their health and bring economic opportunities to their communities. (Hasse, 2021)

Check your state’s laws and those anywhere you travel. Keep in mind that nonprescription CBD products are not FDA-approved and may be inaccurately labeled

Read more

The Legislative Council of the NCAA approved a measure that would reduce the penalty for a positive marijuana drug test. Currently, college athletes face a full year suspension if caught using marijuana, but, after August 1^st of this year, the suspension will be reduced to half of a year.

NCAA reasoned that marijuana is not “performance-enhancing in nature, and this change will encourage schools to provide student-athletes the necessary rehabilitation." The change in policy distances marijuana from being seen equally to steroid use and treats the issue “the same as academic fraud." This change clearly reflects the national shift on attitudes about marijuana towards decriminalization rather than strict punishment.

However, individual schools and conferences can still set whatever harsher penalties they like for their players. Since the NCAA only tests for marijuana during championships, it's fairly easy for an athlete to stop smoking marijuana a month before the NCAA Tournament to test negative.

“But if the NCAA would get out of the morality business when it comes to things like substances, and stay in the business of making sure competition is fair and not tainted by PEDs, I think it would be better for everyone,” Glenn Logan said in an article for SB Nation. “After all, we don't test regular scholarship students for marijuana, so why should student-athletes be singled out?”

Read more

[caption id="attachment_7542" align="alignright" width="300"] Blake Griffin, LA Clippers[/caption]

In an interview with Rolling Stone yesterday, Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers voiced his support of medical marijuana use to treat pain in the NBA.  Currently, the NBA has strict penalties for drug use, which typically lead to suspensions and fines. It was only in 2011 that the NBA stopped testing for marijuana use in the off-season, but now that marijuana is in the limelight, its place in the NBA, as a form of medical treatment for pain, has come into question.

Griffin was asked:

The NFL might let players use medical marijuana to treat pain. If you had a vote, would the NBA do the same?

It doesn't really affect me, but so many guys would probably benefit from it and not take as many painkillers, which have worse long-term effects. So I would vote yes. I just think it makes sense.

 Griffin joins the chorus of other outspoken athletes like Larry Sanders of the Milwaukee Bucks, who said earlier this year, “I believe in marijuana and the medical side of it.”

Like any professional sport, the need for painkillers is a part of the game, and, as Griffin pointed out, the harmful long-term effects of some painkillers makes medical marijuana use an alluring alternative. Even the World Anti-Doping Agency and the UFC have begun by changing their thresholds of permissible amounts of marijuana.

Read more

Nicholas Delpopolo, a Yugoslav-born American judo competitor in the London Olympics, has been disqualified on account of a positive drug test. This is the fifth positive drug test reported by the IOC for this year’s testing program but the first to turn up positive during the competition itself. The 23-year-old tested positive for marijuana metabolites, substances that would appear in the blood for several weeks after consuming marijuana. By way of explanation, he stated that he had recently consumed food that, unbeknownst to him, contained cannabis.

Delpopolo is not the first athlete this year to be disqualified for cannabis, as Scott Morgan explains in his post here. Information from the World Anti-Doping Agency suggests that anti-doping policies in sports are simply concerned with performance-enhancing substances which might give the user an unfair advantage, including stimulants and anabolic steroids. However, caffeine, a stimulant, is not on the list of prohibited substances, while marijuana metabolites are. The justification for this is not clear. Enhancement of athletic performance has not been proven, and there is no evidence that past marijuana use would endanger competitors. No explanation of the inclusion of marijuana on the list is given anywhere on the site. Has the WADA included cannabinoids on its list of prohibited substances out of legitimate concern for fairness in competition, or is this simply a concession to the prohibitionist attitudes of authorities who wish to police athletes’ personal lives?

Read more

Once again, the top brass at NASCAR have taken a stand against marijuana users. Yesterday, officials for the racing organization suspended crewmember and former driver Randy LaJoie indefinitely after he tested positive for marijuana. The test was not to make sure that he could be a driver, but that he could be a spotter. For those of you not familiar with racing, the spotter sits in the stands and relays car positions to his or her driver through a headset. Please forgive my ignorance of the details of racing, but it seems as if this is basically a professional spectator, with the enviable bonus of getting to yell at the driver.

Seriously, a drug test is required for this job.

LaJolie now joins the massive ranks of athletes and celebrities forced to apologize for using a substance safer than alcohol.

"I screwed up," LaJolie said in an interview the day he was suspended.

NASCAR’s behavior is not that surprising. Back in March, officials waited until the last minute to deny Cannabis Planet TV the opportunity to sponsor, and place advertisements on, one of the cars. The car was allowed to race, but with different sponsors.

It seems like the world of racing is lining up against marijuana. In a recent press release, the Office of National Drug Control Policy announced the start of a new campaign with Indy 500 racer Sarah Fisher to combat drugged driving.

This is all well and good. MPP does not advocate driving under the influence of any substance, including marijuana. It just seems strange that ONDCP and the racing community would spend valuable resources targeting marijuana in light of a recent study that shows marijuana use has very little impact on driving ability.

To date, NASCAR is still on very good terms with its alcohol sponsors.

Read more

Not by any rational standard, but the folks who run the Iditarod, Alaska’s famous sled-dog race, seem to think so.  Yikes.

Read more