MLB’s Pot Decision Will Impact NFL CBA

BY ADAM GREENE

Last week Major League Baseball announced they would no longer be testing players for marijuana use. Instead, marijuana use will be treated like alcohol, meaning that players who do not run afoul of the law of the land are free to toke up as they see fit.

The NFL Players Association should have rightly took notice and there’s no question this game-changer should be adopted by the NFL as the two sides resume their collective bargaining negotiations sometime after the New Year.

The fact that any NFL player has been suspended or is currently suspended for using a product that is legal, in some form, in all but three states in the U.S. is ridiculous. In fact, the only states that still have a full prohibition on pot are Idaho, South Dakota and Nebraska. Everybody else is passing around the bong.

What the MLB will be testing for is cocaine and opioids, drugs that are legitimate health hazards. It’s come not only as a response supporting sane drug policy in America, but the tragic death of Los Angeles pitcher Tyler Skaggs, who passed away after mixing opiate painkillers and alcohol and drowned in his own vomit.

While prohibiting weed, the NFL, of course, had no issue handing out highly addictive opioids like Halloween candy. In spite of the body count and the cry, from former and current players, that they’d rather use marijuana for pain management than pill-shaped heroin, the NFL still doled out pot-related punishments consistently.

Marijuana should have never been illegal in the first place. It’s no gateway drug and, frankly, if such a concept was even legitimate, alcohol would be the most “gateway” drug of them all. As I’m sure someone shooting up in a dank storage room of an abandoned TV tube factory probably didn’t turn down a beer earlier that day because he’s a tee-totaller.

Marijuana is simply illegal because of racism and government bureaucrats who didn’t want their funding cut after prohibition was lifted. That’s it. That’s real U.S. history and there’s no disputing it.

We, as a nation and a culture, are wising up. The NFL would be smart, not only to join the 21st century, but also cut down on stupid suspensions that cost teams talented players who use marijuana to help with their physical pain and mental health issues.

In every single state in which the NFL is played, marijuana is legal. The idea that a player indulging in a perfectly legal product could or should be punished is ridiculous on its face. The NFLPA has plenty of issues to work out with the league as negotiations get back underway like the revenue split, Roger Goodell’s discipline power, stadium credits, the franchise tag, the fifth-year rookie option and a possible 18-game regular season, but this one should be atop the queue.

The MLB dropped the gauntlet of sanity here and while the NFL doesn’t seem too willing to pick it up on its own, the NFLPA should shove it in their face, if not smack them across the cheeks with it and demand satisfaction.

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