Another NFL player speaks out on marijuana for pain relief

Pittsburgh Steeler Ryan Clark talked in some detail yesterday about marijuana use in the NFL on ESPN’s First Take.  First Take’s hosts are (in my opinion) among the most annoying on ESPN and this segment is a good example of their grating personalities. But Clark’s comments are well worth checking out.  

In particular, he emphasizes that many players use marijuana as an alternative to more addictive and harmful pain medications.  I think that this is a very powerful concept–both as a matter of politics and policy–that has not made its way into the public consciousness the way marijuana use by cancer patients has, for example.  

Most people immediately grasp the dangers that conventional pain medications carry.  And, because pain is largely in the eye of the person suffering from it (testing for pain is not like taking a person’s temperature or giving them an x-ray), I think it is very difficult to discount self-reports from people who say it helps them.  The more that athletes speak out about this, I think the more average folks will accept (with good reason in my view) that marijuana can be used to treat pain and that it might be a better option than other medications.  

Here’s Clark on the subject:

Clark, a 12-year veteran, discussed the topic of marijuana use and the league’s testing system Thursday morning on ESPN’s “First Take.”

 

“I know guys on my team who smoke,” Clark said. “And it’s not a situation where you think, ‘Oh, these are guys trying to be cool.’ These are guys who want to do it recreationally.

 

“A lot of it is stress relief. A lot of it is pain and medication. Guys feel like, ‘If I can do this, it keeps me away from maybe Vicodin, it keeps me away from pain prescription drugs and things that guys get addicted to.’ Guys look at this as a more natural way to heal themselves, to stress relieve and also to medicate themselves for pain. Guys are still going to do it.”