{"id":8784,"date":"2019-05-23T17:31:45","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T17:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=3472163"},"modified":"2019-05-23T17:31:45","modified_gmt":"2019-05-23T17:31:45","slug":"chris-long-admits-to-smoking-marijuana-calls-nfl-drug-testing-plan-kind-of-silly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/chris-long-admits-to-smoking-marijuana-calls-nfl-drug-testing-plan-kind-of-silly\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Long admits to smoking marijuana, calls NFL drug-testing plan \u201ckind of silly\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\/chris-long-admits-to-smoking-marijuana-calls-nfl-drug-testing-plan-kind-of-silly\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<div><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/chris-long-admits-to-smoking-marijuana-calls-nfl-drug-testing-plan-kind-of-silly.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2019\/05\/23\/chris-long-nfl-marijuana\/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dp-news-marijuana+%28Denver+Post%3A+News%3A+Marijuana%29&amp;utm_content=Google+UK#comments-anchor\"><span class=\"spot-im-replies-count\" data-post-id=\"3472163\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Having announced his retirement last week after 11 NFL seasons, Chris Long is now even more free to speak his mind on the issues that perplex the league (though he never really was afraid of doing that during his playing days, either). So that\u2019s what he did during an appearance Wednesday on \u201cThe Dan Patrick Show\u201d when he said he \u201cenjoyed my fair share\u201d of marijuana during his playing days and became the latest player or former player to question the effectiveness of the NFL\u2019s drug-testing policy and its policy prohibiting marijuana. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not a dry snitch, I\u2019m not going to put a percentage on how much the league smokes, but I certainly enjoyed my fair share on a regular basis throughout my career,\u201d Long said. \u201cSo, you know, and I was never afraid to say that and I\u2019m able to say it more explicitly now: if not for that, I\u2019m not as capable of coping with the stressors of day-to-day NFL life. A lot of guys get a lot of pain management out of it. (Anti-inflammatory drug) Toradol did more pain management for me.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Long also pointed out the ineffectiveness of the league\u2019s testing policy for recreational drugs, in which players are tested only once a year at some point between late April and early August. Joining others, he said it isn\u2019t hard to pass the test. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think testing is arbitrary. The league, speaking plainly, knows d\u2014 well what they\u2019re doing,\u201d Long said. \u201cTesting players once a year for \u2018street drugs\u2019, which is a terrible classification for marijuana, is kind of silly because, you know, players know when the test is, we can stop, and in that month or two that you stop, you\u2019re going to reach for the sleeping pills, you\u2019re going to reach for the pain killers, you\u2019re going to reach for the bottle a little bit more. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn the weekend you\u2019re going to have a few more drinks, and a few turns into a few too many. \u2026 It\u2019s just not the same. If you\u2019re serious about players not smoking, you\u2019d be testing more often. I hope they go the opposite direction and kind of realize how arbitrary doing that one test a year is.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Marijuana remains on the NFL\u2019s banned-substances list even though more than half the country \u2014 33 states plus the District of Columbia \u2014 allows marijuana use in some form. Ten states have completely legalized it, and five of them are home to NFL franchises. When the Raiders move to Las Vegas next season, that number will grow to six. This week, the league and the players\u2019 union announced the creation of a joint committee that will study alternative methods of pain management, and considering that a number of players have said marijuana is a safer and more effective way to curtail the chronic soreness that comes with being an NFL player, marijuana will be a topic of conversation, both on the committee and when the owners and the players try to work out a new collective bargaining agreement in the coming years. <\/p>\n<p>Allen Sills, the NFL\u2019s chief medical officer, told USA Today this week that there hasn\u2019t been enough scientific study on whether marijuana is a viable alternative to prescription painkillers. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think many times there\u2019s a narrative that says: \u2018I have severe pain. I\u2019m either going to take opioids or marijuana.\u2019 Those are the only two choices,\u201d Sills said. \u201cAnd that is absolutely wrong. There are many other treatment strategies. <\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\" \/>\n<p>\u201cI think that the science, unfortunately, has lagged behind a lot of the popular opinion and press on this,\u201d Sills continued. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot more opinion than we do science. I hope the science will catch up.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>But to Long, the evidence about marijuana\u2019s benefits are clear. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe should be headed to a place where we allow players to enjoy what I would not even call a drug \u2014 it\u2019s far less dangerous than guzzling a fifth of alcohol and going out after a game,\u201d he said. \u201cChances are the player won\u2019t even make it to the club (laughs) to do this sort of thing that we all kind of wag our finger at when we hear about a guy getting in a fight or getting a DUI, you\u2019re never going to read about him sitting on the couch and binge-watching \u2018Game of Thrones\u2019 again. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think from a standpoint of what\u2019s safer for people and the player, certainly people in the spotlight, it is far less harmful than alcohol, it is far less harmful than tobacco, and at various points in the league\u2019s history, they have engaged in partnerships on different levels with those respective industries.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>Having announced his retirement last week after 11 NFL seasons, Chris Long is now even more free to speak his mind on the issues that perplex the league (though he never really was afraid of doing that during his playing days, either). So that&#8217;s what he did during an appearance Wednesday on &#8220;The Dan Patrick Show&#8221; when he said he &#8220;enjoyed my fair share&#8221; of marijuana during his playing days and became the latest player or former player to question the effectiveness of the NFL&#8217;s drug-testing policy and its policy prohibiting marijuana. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[760,6813,77,5667,9,5019,1091,2387,5113,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[3333,6818,2655,5673,5022,3661,4951,5114],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8784"}],"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=8784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8784\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}