Co-founder Thoma Kikis, who has been working on cannibas-based solutions to concussions for a few years, said he approached the NFL about signing on to the research.
“They didn’t want to meet, didn’t want to take a position to create any kind of controversy,” Kikis said. “I understand that. But ultimately, they’re going to have to make a decision and look into different research.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has treaded gingerly around the subject. Before last season’s Super Bowl he said the league would “follow the medicine” and not rule out allowing players to use marijuana for medical purposes. An NFL spokesman reiterated that this month, saying if medical advisers inform the league it should consider modifying the policy, it would explore possible changes.
A spokesman for the players union declined comment on marijuana, beyond saying the union is always looking for ways to improve the drug-testing policy. But earlier this year, NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith said the marijuana policy is secondary when set against the failure to bring Human Growth Hormone testing into the game. Some believe relaxing the marijuana rules could be linked to a deal that would bring in HGH testing.
“I’ve heard that in conversations,” said Wiley, a plaintiff in the painkiller lawsuit. “And I think it’s despicable that you’d pit them against each other.”
The NFL drug policy has come under even more scrutiny this summer, after the NFL handed down a season-long suspension of Browns receiver Josh Gordon for multiple violations of the NFL substance-abuse policy. That suspension, especially when juxtaposed against the two-game ban Ray Rice received for domestic violence, has led some to say the league’s priorities are out of whack.
In June, Harvard Medical School professor emeritus Lester Grinspoon, one of the forefathers of marijuana research, published an open letter to Goodell, urging him to drop urine testing for weed altogether and, more importantly, fund a crash research project for a marijuana-based drug that can alleviate the consequences of concussions.
“As much as I love to watch professional football, I’m beginning to feel like a Roman in the days when they would send Christians to the lions,” Grinspoon said. “I don’t want to be part of an audience that sees kids ruin their future with this game, and then the league doesn’t give them any recourse to try to protect themselves.”
The league does fund sports-health research at the NIH to the tune of a $30 million donation it made in 2012. But the science moves slowly no matter where it’s conducted and, as Vandrey says, “the NFL is in business for playing football, not doing scientific research.”
Meanwhile, marijuana becomes more and more acceptable across America every day. But even with the Super Bowl being dubbed “The Stoner Bowl” and the issue hanging heavily over the NFL’s marquee event, the league has shown no signs of quick movement.
The league’s threshold for a positive test remains 10 times lower than that of WADA, which changed its limit last year in a nod to the reality that the drug is not a performance enhancer.
The NFL’s conundrum is figuring a graceful way to keep tabs on those who use marijuana recklessly — or recreationally — while giving others a legitimate form of pain relief.
“I’d like to see us advance the subject to where we’re all mature and we get it,” Wiley said, “and we let players make the decision for themselves.”
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AP Sports Writer Joseph White in Washington contributed to this report.
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