When Will Athletes Be Protected by Patient’s Rights Too?
As ESPN reports, Washington State’s DeAngelo Casto has been suspended due to a small amount of marijuana that was found in his home.
I don’t know if he is a qualified patient, but I know the pains athletes endure after practice and games; swelling, inflammation, pain, etc.
Cannabis can be a performance enhancing drug, but it would have to be respected by the NCAA authorities as a preventative medicine useful in reducing inflammation, which would recognize it as a medicine. It’s obviously not like other drugs that would show up in a drug test that are considered to enhance one’s performance, however, therefore leaving it out of that particular category.
Many athletes use relaxation and anti-inflammatory medicines, many that are full of harmful chemicals or creams that can do other forms of damage to an athlete’s body.
For athletes to be targeted for ‘small amounts of marijuana’ in a state that has a medicinal program, it’s high time we begin protected athlete’s rights when it comes to ensuring the safest form of medicine is available to them without criminal prosecution. Student athletes, and students in general, should not have their futures jeopardized because of an outdated thought process by those in charge who don’t have all the facts yet.
