Photo Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
Karl-Anthony Towns Says Marijuana Shouldn’t Be Banned In The NBA
It is no secret that many NBA players like to smoke marijuana during the off-season, when there are no drug tests. Some even take the risk and smoke during the season as well.
Marijuana is being legalized in more and more states, and is used for medical purposes, such as killing pain, in many places around the world.
As of now, the NBA tests for marijuana, and if a player is tested positive, he will likely be suspended for a certain amount of games.
This could possibly be change in the nearer future. According to reddit user Ed Hamden, who spoke to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver at the Basketball Without Boarders Camp in Israel this past summer, Silver is open-minded about possibly clearing marijuana for medical purposes in the NBA.
“I’m very interested in the science when it comes to medical marijuana. My personal view is that it should be regulated in the same way other medications are if the plan is to use it for pain management. It needs to be discussed with our players association. Science demonstrates that are effective uses for medical reasons, and we’re open for it”
Now, Karl-Anthony Towns is the NBA’s latest advocate for marijuana:
“I agree with David Stern with marijuana,” Towns told ESPN. “You don’t have to actually make it ‘Mary J’ [or] ‘Half Baked.’ You don’t have to do it like that, but you could use the [chemical] properties in it to make a lot of people better. That’s something that Adam Silver has to do. That’s out of my control, but maybe legalizing marijuana. Not fully legal, where people are chimneys, but using [marijuana] as a beneficial factor as an athlete, as a person living daily.”
“I think it’s discussed,” Towns said. “But I look at it from my experience with it. I’ve never smoked. I’ve never taken a strand. I’ve never taken properties of it, whatever the case may be. But I deal with kids all the time at autistic schools, Reed Academy in New Jersey. My girlfriend has an autistic nephew, and you realize those properties of marijuana can do a lot of good for kids and for adults.
These guys, just because we’re NBA athletes, we’re not superhumans. Some of us have conditions that could use [medicinal marijuana] to our benefit for everyday living, just taking care of our kids and our families.”
That’s probably a step in the right direction. Medical marijuana instead of pain killers or other chemicals NBA players take on a regular basis, is healthier in the long run.
