Steelers legend Jack Ham supporting medicinal marijuana in Pennsylvania and use in the NFL

[stillers4me]

If the NFL has one major ongoing issue which will certainly be discussed between the league and the NFL Players Association when the next Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is due, it would be the league’s stance on medicinal marijuana use.



Currently, it is illegal across the board, regardless of where you play. For instance, players for the Denver Broncos (http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/teams/denver-broncos) are not permitted to use marijuana for any reason, despite it being legalized in the state of Colorado.


A former linebacker, and legend, of the Pittsburgh Steelers (http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/teams/pittsburgh-steelers) is speaking out to get a medicinal marijuana farm in the state of Pennsylvania, and questioned the league’s stance on the drug at the same time.............

Read more @ http://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com/nfl-pittsburgh-steelers-news/2017/6/4/15736022/steelers-legend-jack-ham-supporting-medicinal-marijuana-in-pennsylvania-and-use-in-the-nfl-opioids

[FrancoLambert]

How anyone can view the use of marijuana as being more detrimental and harmful than the use of opioids is mind boggling to me.

Obviously those that do, have no interest in using facts or science to support their belief.

Way to go Dobre Shunka!

[Born2Steel]

It's not a matter of more or less harmful, it comes down to proven medical benefits. No study this far has been conclusive. If the FDA can get it done, they will. It would be a less harmful(in most cases) than opioids.

Consider. Knowing what we already do about how the chemicals in marijuana effect brain function, how do you feel about it's use in a sport that already has concussion issues as it's MAJOR safety downfall?

There's a bigger picture than just one drug's side effects vs another drug's side effects. There has to be PROVEN risk/reward benefits on case by case scenario first.

[Lady Steel]

Dobre marihuana. :lol:

[FrancoLambert]

It's not a matter of more or less harmful, it comes down to proven medical benefits. No study this far has been conclusive. If the FDA can get it done, they will. It would be a less harmful(in most cases) than opioids.

Consider. Knowing what we already do about how the chemicals in marijuana effect brain function, how do you feel about it's use in a sport that already has concussion issues as it's MAJOR safety downfall?

There's a bigger picture than just one drug's side effects vs another drug's side effects. There has to be PROVEN risk/reward benefits on case by case scenario first.

Providing medical benefits is primary. Weighing the potential for harm to the user is just as important. Both are used to treat pain. Both have side effects.

All I'm saying is that the side effects and potential for physical addiction from opioid abuse would be worse than the side effects and potential for behavioral addiction from cannabis abuse.

I'd bet that abusers of pot have an easier time ridding themselves of their habit than abusers of opioids do with their habit. :noidea:

[Mojouw]

Until our culture changes its attitudes towards the harmful use of illicit narcotics - what we all call "drugs" - nothing positive is going to change. We currently view drug use as failing of moral and mental character on the part of the drug user. We then respond to the consequences and outcomes in the same manner. The offender is placed in some sort of punitive scenario and "treatment" is typically of the get your shit together variety.

However, increasingly the weight of evidence is on drug use and dependency being the result of a series of social, psychological, economic, and medical factors. Successfully transitioning an individual from "addict/drug user" to "recovered" addict usually involves addressing each of those factors in a treatment based scenario that focuses on the hoped for positive outcome rather than a punishment based one.

Long story short. Alcohol used to be discussed as a failing of personal character or mental defect in this country. Then starting in about the 1950's or so, we began to approach, discuss it, and treat it as a mental and physical ailment. Suddenly the success rate for helping people overcome alcohol dependency and abuse (relatively) skyrocketed. Drug use/abuse and its treatment needs to similarly shifted into almost exclusively a medical discussion. But it isn't and likely won't be for some time.

As long as we are conducting a "war on drugs" things are not going to change in a similar fashion. Marijuana, ecstasy, LSD, and psilocybin have all repeatedly demonstrated positive clinical effects that are often impossible to duplicate with other treatments. But getting from where we are now as a culture with our shared viewpoints on "drugs" to the idea that a substance people use to get "high" and "party" should be prescribed by and paid for by the government to treat PTSD (as an example) is going to take a long ass time.

In the meantime we can just keep handing out opioids like tic-tacs.

[tube517]

Dobre marihuana. :lol:

Doobie Shunka! :lol: :smokin:

[Born2Steel]

Providing medical benefits is primary. Weighing the potential for harm to the user is just as important. Both are used to treat pain. Both have side effects.

All I'm saying is that the side effects and potential for physical addiction from opioid abuse would be worse than the side effects and potential for behavioral addiction from cannabis abuse.

I'd bet that abusers of pot have an easier time ridding themselves of their habit than abusers of opioids do with their habit. :noidea:

ALL prescription medicine has harmful side effects. Being more or less harmful is not the issue. Patients that get addicted to prescribed pain meds have treatment options and are monitored by their physician. It's the people that obtain prescription drugs illegally that are the epidemic. Opioids or otherwise. The benefits of medicinal marijuana just haven't been proven conclusively at this time. New drugs come out constantly. Pharmacy reps come in every day hocking wares and giving samples to our doctors. Some topical creams for arthritis pain relief are only approved for certain body parts, if that doesn't sound crazy enough by itself. It's FDA regulations, not the moral objections of the people. That's more my main point.


http://www.businessinsider.com/facts-on-marijuana-and-health-2015-4

http://nypost.com/2017/06/02/keep-your-hands-off-my-daughters-medical-marijuana/

https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/marijuana-medicine

https://cyber.harvard.edu/evidence99/marijuana/Health_1.html

These articles show successes and dangers with medical marijuana research. Again, nothing has been conclusive yet. Which is why we wait and see.