Published: Monday, April 14, 2014
Updated: Monday, April 14, 2014 04:04
During Super Bowl week, it seemed the trendy joke was to point out that the two states that had recently legalized recreational marijuana were going to share the world’s biggest bowl.
Though only one team got smoked, it brought the discussion of cannabis in sport to the forefront, shedding light on an intersection of private organizations’ strict rules and local government’s sudden relaxed restrictions.
Some in the medical field have suggested athletes use marijuana as a painkiller in lieu of other prescription painkillers while opponents are concerned about cannabis’s negative effects on the human body, as well as the obvious legal barriers prohibiting medicinal marijuana in 30 U.S. states.
Mirror alum William Dolphin has researched and written extensively on the topic of marijuana in sports. Dolphin said in a phone interview with The Mirror that cannabis can be more effective than other painkillers in with particular types of pain.
“The one that it is particularly effective with that other painkillers are not is neuropathic pain, also known as nerve pain, which is fortunately not usually the kind of thing athletes are dealing with unless they’ve ended up with some sort of injury,” he said.
Of course, the most famous recent injury to a Colorado athlete involves nerve damage: Peyton Manning’s neck pain that prompted the Indianapolis Colts to cut him, giving the Denver Broncos the opportunity to sign a sure-fire Hall of Famer as a free agent.
So, would Dolphin have suggested Manning toke up during his year on the sideline?
“The prevailing opinion of doctors who look at this is that it’s safe enough and broadly effective enough that it is a good option where you would use any other kind of painkiller,” Dolphin said. “That’s a long way around to saying yeah, it would have been appropriate. The thing about the nerve pain is that it’s uniquely effective and that’s been demonstrated with a number of clinical studies.”
Of Peyton’s former home states (Indiana, Tennessee and Louisiana), none has legalized medicinal or recreational use of cannabis, and somehow I think PFM is better suited for national Buick commercials rather than late-night Headed West spots on Comedy Central.
Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, known for his laid back personality, broached the topic of medicinal marijuana in the NFL during Super Bowl week.
“The fact that it’s in the world of medicine is obviously something (NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell) realizes and him making the expression that we need to follow the information and the research absolutely I’m in support of,” Carroll said. “Regardless of what other stigmas may be involved, I think we have to do this because the world of medicine is trying to do the exact same thing and figure it out and they’re coming to some conclusions.”
Carroll has had the substance spotlight on his team recently as several Seattle players have tested positive for banned performance enhancers during his four-year tenure in the Emerald City.
Most people wouldn’t consider weed a performance-enhancing drug; after all, it’s stereotypically linked to potato chips and late-night Taco Bell runs—not exactly conducive to athletic competition.
But Dolphin said there are certain effects that can be beneficial.
“It increases your heart rate and it dilates your blood vessels, so for endurance sports, that’s kind of a good thing to happen,” he said. “It’s also a bronchial dilator. People with asthma use it.
“It’s sort of kind of counterintuitive: You’re going to smoke something or inhale something? Of course you’re going to inhale something to control asthma—you use an inhaler, right? There’s chemicals in the cannabis that create the same effect or a similar one in terms of opening up those airways.”
While Ricky Williams may quit football for pot and a high Dwayne Bowe may ask arresting officers where the nearest Sonic restaurant is, the place of marijuana in sport may be changing, albeit slowly.
“Most sports are concerned not with just sort of technicalities of legality but they’re very concerned—and rightfully so—with image,” Dolphin said. “It’s hard to envision NCAA, NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, any of those folks going too far down the road of embracing the use of it until there’s a change in federal law.
— Michael Nowels is a senior elementary education major and the sports editor for The Mirror. He can be reached via email at sports@uncmirror.com.
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