Substance Review Coming: Could Marijuana Soon Be Allowed in The NFL?

The NFL is full of dirty little secrets. First was CTE and now many former players are coming forward with stories about battling addiction. An addiction that was prescribed to them by Team Doctors.

According to a recent tweet by Ben Volin of The Boston Globe, a review about pain management and prescriptions is planned to analyze the information provided by players and teams and from the information will include input by outside professionals.

But what does this mean for the players?

Many playing the game get hurt. When they do they have two choices to deal with this pain. The first is to accept a prescription for potentially dangerous and addictive painkillers and adhere to the league’s substance abuse policy or to use Marijuana and risk losing the career that got them hurt in the first place.

The move by the NFL and NFLPA comes as a new collective bargaining agreement comes into view and will be influenced by many parties. currently, 10 states have a legal Marijuana policy, yet even in these states, Marijuana is a banned substance. As more states investigate and follow suit, more is being learned about cannabis and it’s non addictive nature.

So many former players have been thankful for this drug. So many players have also taken the sanctioned option and it has cost them dearly in the form of an addiction that has continued long after their career has ended.

It’s time the league joined the modern era and allowed its players to choose a safer alternative to pain management, one which won’t affect them after the lights go out.