Professional Athletes Support Marijuana

Marijuana may be legal in states like California and Colorado, but it is still illegal in a sense. For example, a drug test for a new job in California or Colorado will still test you for marijuana use despite you being allowed to consume it. Same applies in the professional sports world in a sense.

Professional sports seasons take quite a toll on athletes’ bodies. For many years athletes have relied on opioids and painkillers for pain relief. The problem with opioids and painkillers is that they can lead to abuse and addiction, which can lead to death. The pending solution to this problem in the sports world is marijuana, which is banned in most professional sports leagues.

Recently there was a Cannabis World Congress and Business Exhibition which featured athletes from the UFC, NBA, NFL, and NHL advocating the legalization of medical marijuana. The main focus of the exhibition was to discuss how it's possible for athletes to use cannabis and still resume a healthy lifestyle despite stereotypes surrounding marijuana use.

In reality, it would be a safer and better alternative to opioids and painkillers, which has been found to affect professional athletes more profoundly than the regular person. A study has found that professional athletes are four times more likely to abuse opiods and painkillers than regular patients (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3095672/).

For years, people have been using medical marijuana to find relief from chronic pain, inflammation, depression and disorders which is something professional athletes generally deal with. Instead they are only allowed to take the potentially dangerous stuff.

But this problem can soon be over as most recently, the NBA and NFL have opened the doors to discussion of potentially allowing its players use medical marijuana. So let’s hope for the best.