Cannabis “doc and jocks” promote marijuana in pro sports
Submitted by Marijuana News on Fri, 08/31/2018 - 09:05
Most
of the nation’s largest cannabis science conference this week featured
wonky research papers. The exception was a group of professional
athletes, who took the stage to promote cannabis in sports.
In the “doc and jocks” panel, the “doc” was Uma Dhanabalan,
a charismatic physician with a private practice in Massachusetts. She
interviewed four “jocks,” former athletes in professional football,
hockey, rugby and basketball.
The crowd of local Trail Blazers fans and cannabis advocates
enthusiastically cheered former Blazer Cliff Robinson as he called for
normalizing cannabis use in pro basketball. Robinson said he smoked
marijuana to calm his anxiety but was punished for it.
He recalled the police stop that led to his arrest and
suspension in 2001 for marijuana possession. “They were up on the bridge
pointing guns at us,” he said. “All we had in the car was half a
joint.”
While cannabis is criminalized in sports, the athletes
said, unhealthy drugs and behaviors are big business. Beer and vodka
companies spend billions on commercials. Big pharma churns out opiods
that athletes turn to for pain relief.
Retired NFL offensive lineman Eben Britton questioned why
alcohol and painkillers went unchecked in the league, while officials
refused to listen to his case for cannabis.
Professional football runs on hard hits and high pressure, Britton
said, fostering a culture of violence and substance abuse off the field.
Britton described an “avalanche” of Oxycodone, Vicodin and other
prescription painkillers “passed around on the airplane” en route to
games.
He said marijuana could provide a more natural cure. He
described the “neuroprotective” properties of cannabis as preventative
medicine for the NFL’s epidemic of concussions and long-term brain
damage.
“As soon as somebody goes down,” Britton said. “There should be someone rushing onto the field with some sort of cannabinoid.”
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