The National Football League (NFL) wishes to study marijuana use as a pain management tool for its players.
“The NFL has written to the NFL Players Association offering to work in tandem to study the potential use of marijuana as a pain management tool for players, according to people familiar with the situation,” reports The Washington Post. “It is the clearest indication to this point that the league may be willing to work cooperatively with the union toward such marijuana use, which is currently banned by the sport.
“The NFLPA is conducting its own study and, according to those familiar with the deliberations, is yet to respond to the NFL’s offer to cooperate on marijuana-related research.”
Executive director of the NFLPA, DeMaurice Smith, told The Washington Post that the union was already preparing a proposal “that would result in a ‘less punitive’ approach to recreational marijuana use by players.”
“I do think that issues of addressing it more in a treatment and less punitive measure is appropriate,” Smith said in an interview in January. “I think it’s important to look at whether there are addiction issues. And I think it’s important to not simply assume recreation is the reason it’s being used.”
As a separate issue, the NFLPA is carrying out research that looks particularly at how marijuana use can help players with traumatic brain injuries.
The research comes as it was revealed in a recent study of 111 deceased NFL players that all but one had the neurodegenerative brain disease C.T.E., or chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
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