Former NFL players come out in support of medical marijuana

NFL players are talking about medical marijuana and the need for the NFL to approve as a treatment option

Former NFL Chicago Bears quarterback Jim McMahon has been widely quoted for his support of medical marijuana. McMahon is suffering through Early Onset Dementia. It’s a disease usually reserved for the elderly, but for the athlete it has impacted his memory, thought process and cognitive abilities.

McMahon, who played 15 seasons in the National Football League, is just 56 years old.

The former Super Bowl winning quarterback joined multiple ex-NFL players at the Cannabis World Congress and Business Expo this past week to show their support for the use of medical marijuana in the league.

“There’s so many uses to this plant,” McMahon said, via NY Daily News. “Hundreds of thousands of people are dying from (painkillers) and there’s not one case of people dying from the hemp plant.”

The expo also featured players: Leonard Marshall, Nate Jackson, Charlie Adams and Eben Britton.

Medical marijuana use in the league has been not accepted by the NFL and those players caught using marijuana can face stiff penalties. Just recently, the Baltimore Ravens decided to release starting left tackle Eugene Monroe after he openly advocated for the use of medical marijuana as a healthier alternative to opioids.

Marshall, who played for 12 seasons, echoed McMahon’s sentiment on the issue, indicating that his “quality of life” has improved due to the use of marijuana as a medical substance.

Britton, a former offensive lineman for the Jacksonville Jaguars and Chicago Bears expanded on this.

“Juxtaposing my experiences with pharmaceutical drugs like Vicodin and Percocet, that made me angry and irritable, frustrated, didn’t get rid of any of the pain, made it difficult to sleep, increased my heart rate and made me feel crazy,” Britton concluded. “On the other side of that there’s cannabis that helped me sleep, put me into a healing state of being where I was relieved from stress and anxiety as well as feeling the pain relief.

It does seem like a matter of time before the league and its antiquated practices are overhauled and medical marijuana is validated by the NFL. The NFL is looking into the alternative of medical marijuana as they did meet with Monroe’s doctors to discuss medical marijuana as an alternative to often prescribed pain-killers.