Chris Long admits “regular” marijuana use over NFL career
Former Patriots defensive end Chris Long, recently retired from the NFL, admitted to frequent use of marijuana throughout his playing career.
Chris Long has been out of the NFL for all of four days, and he continues to make national headlines even as a “civilian.”
He first found himself trending in the news for opening up about the culture of the relatively-clandestine Patriots organization; he praised Bill Belichick for being more capable and educational than any position coach or head coach in the league, while also defending Tom Brady’s character as “a normal guy” who seems above being unlikeable in any way.
Now, he’s making waves of another kind by detailing extensively and honestly just how much marijuana played a role in his life as a player in the NFL. In an appearance Wednesday on The Dan Patrick Show, Long criticized the league for its zero-tolerance policy on marijuana, arbitrary system of drug-testing, and longstanding association with alcohol and tobacco sponsors – both of which Long derided as being significantly more harmful than marijuana.
“We should be headed to a place where we allow players to use what I wouldn’t even call drugs,” Long explained. “It’s far less dangerous than players guzzling a fifth of alcohol and going out after a game. (Marijuana) is far less harmful than alcohol. It is far less harmful than tobacco. And at various points in the league’s history, they have engaged in partnerships on different levels in those respective industries.”
Long also echoed a point that has been made by many NFL players in the past: that the league’s preference for painkillers and other prescription drugs over smoking marijuana is misguided, and frankly dangerous to player health and safety in both the short and long-term. He explained that many players smoke marijuana regularly throughout the year, but curtail the habit a month or two before they know they are going to get drug-tested for it.
"“In that month or two that you stop (smoking), you’re going to reach for the sleeping pills, you’re going to reach for the pain-killers and you’re going to reach for the bottle a little bit more. If you’re serious about players not using, you’d be testing more often. I hope they go the opposite direction and just kind of realize how arbitrary that one test is. I certainly enjoyed my fair share (of marijuana) on a regular basis through my career. If not for that, I’m not as capable of coping with the stresses of the day-to-day NFL life.”"
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It remains to be seen when or if the NFL will ever decide to relax its policy on marijuana use, even as more and more states in the U.S. continue to legalize and regulate its use by citizens on both medical and recreational levels.