As of right now, ten states in America have officially legalized marijuana for recreational use, which means you can virtually buy it at a corner store in those areas.
Is it still really legal though? A lot of legal experts disagree because the drug is still illegal on a federal scale but that would also mean that federal government agencies would have to charge and prosecute in order to convict those using the drug. But, mostly, in American society, it’s still frowned upon.
And one recently retired Detroit Lions star claims he smoked weed after every single game illegally.
American professional athletes smoking marijuana illegally, either before or after games is nothing new.
There are hundreds, if not thousands of athletes over the years that have admitted to engaging in the devil’s lettuce when they weren’t supposed to illegally, or just stringently prohibited in the league they play in. Even with marijuana being illegal in ten states, most leagues still prohibit the use of the drug even if it’s recreational and doesn’t directly affect their performances.
Some of the world’s greatest athletes of all time have admitted to using pot while they were athletes. 6x NBA MVP and 6x NBA Champion Kareem Abdul-Jabbar admitted as such.
And who could forget about the most decorated American Olympian, Michael Phelps, infamously smoking out of a bong in January 2009 following his epic swimming run at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
Other athletes who repeatedly engaged include Randy Moss, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Walton, Ricky Williams, Tim Lincecum, Michael Vick, Warren Sapp, Doc Ellis, and Chris Webber. Honestly, there are probably thousands of others.
And now recently retired Detroit Lions star Calvin Johnson, or “Megatron,” who was the best wide receiver in the game at the time, admitted to Sports Illustrated that he smoked weed following every single game over nine seasons.
The NFL apparently never drug tested the starter Lions receiver because if they did then they would have noticed it. Marijuana typically stays in your system for at least a week, or at the very least is detectable, even in the smallest of dosages.
Megatron’s reasoning for using the drug was because of physical ailments like concussions.
The Sports Illustrated article notes that Johnson said about the opioid abuse in the league, “When I got to the league, [there] was opioid abuse. You really could go in the training room and get what you wanted. I can get Vicodin, I can get Oxy[contin]. It was too available. I used Percocet and stuff like that. And I did not like the way that made me feel. I had my preferred choice of medicine. Cannabis.”
A lot of NFL players have been advocates for the NFL to embrace marijuana as a drug to choose instead of other opioids. That’s especially because America has an addiction to opioid crisis in this country even outside of sports.
The league’s stance on marijuana hasn’t wavered but it looks like they may be more understandable to use marijuana for medicinal uses, as an option against using opioids.
However, the league considering hearing the physical marijuana benefits has been going on for nearly a decade and they still haven’t concluded on a stance even after they said they would.
That doesn’t allow players to engage in a substance that is clearly prohibited per the NFL and NFLPA agreement, but when has that ever stopped players?
Johnson also added, “I misused the terms nerve damage and concussion. I knew I was concussed because I blacked out. I wasn’t seeing straight. And they wanted me to change my story.”
Think about this: doesn’t this just tell you that even experts are really uneducated about a lot of things and new research is still coming to light? The CTE scandal the NFL had to deal with is relatively new and forced the league to acknowledge new evidence. That’s just a fact.
