{"id":7377,"date":"2017-05-04T03:56:35","date_gmt":"2017-05-04T03:56:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=2637212"},"modified":"2017-05-04T03:56:35","modified_gmt":"2017-05-04T03:56:35","slug":"former-nfl-ol-eben-britton-calls-roger-goodells-marijuana-comments-a-big-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/former-nfl-ol-eben-britton-calls-roger-goodells-marijuana-comments-a-big-mistake\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NFL OL Eben Britton calls Roger Goodell\u2019s marijuana comments \u201ca big mistake\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/former-nfl-ol-eben-britton-calls-roger-goodells-marijuana-comments-a-big-mistake\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>Eben Britton, a former NFL offensive lineman and now staunch advocate for marijuana allowance in the league, had heard similar comments in the past but hoped the league and its commissioner, Roger Goodell, had\u00a0changed its view on marijuana.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OTLonESPN\/status\/859500522331676673\">You\u2019re ingesting smoke<\/a>, so that\u2019s not usually a very positive thing that people would say,\u201d Goodell said in an interview on ESPN\u2019s \u201cMike &amp; Mike\u201d radio show. \u201cIt does have addictive nature. There are a lot of compounds in marijuana that may not be healthy for the players long-term. All of those things have to be considered.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Goodell said the league\u2019s medical advisers have been studying the issue and \u201cto date, they haven\u2019t said this is a change we think you should make that\u2019s in the best interests of the health and safety of our players.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Britton, one of many\u00a0retired players who have been outspoken about marijuana\u2019s potential benefits in treating players\u2019 pain and symptoms from head injuries, said Goodell\u2019s comments are \u201cdumb\u201d and \u201ca big mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that he portrays it in this light, as if has to be smoked, it feeds into the stigma of it rather than understanding that this can be used as a tincture, a capsule. It can be provided in many different forms,\u201d Britton said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of positive movement, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s so ridiculous to see Roger Goodell\u2019s statements. Like, you\u2019re living in the Stone Age and it makes you look like you don\u2019t (care) about the players. This is something that could really have a positive impact on the No. 1 issue you\u2019re facing\u00a0\u2014 the\u00a0No. 1 and No. 2 issues: concussions and (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), and then this opioid epidemic. Stop saying these dumb things because then you have uneducated people reading things like that and saying, \u2018Oh, the commissioner of the NFL says this thing is really bad.\u2019 No.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The NFL Players Association has vowed for months to propose a more lenient approach to the way the league handles marijuana use among players, but its suggested changes to the substance-abuse policy have yet to be presented to the league and the specifics remain unknown.<\/p>\n<p>DeMaurice Smith, the union\u2019s executive director, appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OTLonESPN\/status\/859500522331676673\">ESPN\u2019s \u201cOutside the Lines\u201d<\/a> on Tuesday to address the topic and Goodell\u2019s comments, and said: \u201cWe intend to present a proposal to the league that probably has more of a therapeutic approach to those who test positive for marijuana. The idea is simply to make sure that we understand whether a player is suffering from something other than just a desire to smoke marijuana. I think all of us would want to have a process where, if there was truly a problem, we\u2019re treating the problem instead of just treating a symptom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although Britton is not privy to the specifics of the proposal, he took the \u201ctherapeutic approach\u201d to mean the union wants players to be granted access to medical marijuana through a therapeutic use exemption, just as he was allowed to obtain Adderall, a banned substance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI went through a team doctor and then I was referred to a team psychiatrist who put me through a litany of tests and basically said, \u2018Yeah, this guy should be able to use Adderall for therapeutic purpose,\u2019 \u201d said Britton, who <a href=\"https:\/\/the-cauldron.com\/what-does-it-take-to-stay-in-the-nfl-you-don-t-want-to-know-21c6665cab00\">has written extensively of his abuse of Adderall<\/a> during his playing career. \u201cI think, if anything, that\u2019s a decent step in the right direction. I think even better than that, though, might be to take an approach like the NHL does.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The NHL does not test for marijuana. NFL players are tested in the offseason and face disciplinary action for a positive test of more than 35 nanograms per milliliter of urine of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component of marijuana.<\/p>\n<p>Per the current substance-abuse policy, T.U.E.s may be granted by the Independent Administrator of the NFL Policy on Performance-Enhancing Substances and the Medical Adviser for the Policy and Program on Substances of Abuse. However, marijuana cannot be prescribed by a physician because it is federally illegal.<\/p>\n<p>In the 29 states \u2014 plus Washington D.C. \u2014 that have adopted medical marijuana laws, doctors can issue a recommendation for cannabis to patients. But that leaves nine NFL teams that play their home games in states that have not legalized it for medical purposes. (The Redskins train in Virginia, where medical marijuana is illegal, but play their home games in Maryland, where it is legal.)<\/p>\n<p>The union recently developed a pain management committee to study, among other things, the potential benefits of cannabis for players. Research is still relatively limited on both marijuana and cannabidiol (CBD) products derived from hemp that contain only trace amounts of THC. But anecdotal evidence has grown significantly over the last decade.<\/p>\n<p>Many retired players \u2014 including Britton, <a href=\"http:\/\/dpo.st\/gameofpain\">former Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer<\/a> and former tackle Eugene Monroe \u2014 have preached cannabis\u2019 pain-relieving qualities and believe it\u2019s a safer alternative to the habit-forming painkillers team physicians often prescribe.<\/p>\n<p>Britton is a founding member of Athletes For Care, a nonprofit organization formed to help players transition to retirement and offer support groups and awareness of addiction. The organization has teamed with the Lambert Center for the Study of Medicinal Cannabis and Hemp at Thomas Jefferson University to continue to raise awareness and push for research.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think today\u2019s players are more and more cognizant that these long-term issues are going to be things that we have to deal with,\u201d Britton said of pain and brain injuries from football. \u201cWe\u2019ve chosen this life and it\u2019s come with a ton of reward, but it comes with a really high price.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have to be taking proactive steps to take care of yourself before it\u2019s too late, before you\u2019ve slipped into the dark pastures of addiction. You\u2019re trying to do the best you can to keep your body as healthy in the moment as possible so down the line you\u2019re not getting hit with a ton of bricks with all these ailments that are creeping up on guys.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Said Britton: &#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of positive movement, and that&#8217;s why it&#8217;s so ridiculous to see Roger Goodell&#8217;s statements.&#8221; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[760,6813,77,6999,9,1091,7097,5113,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[3333,6818,2655,7000,3661,7098,5114],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7377"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}