NFL Players Say Marijuana Use Reduces Need for Painkillers

NFL Players Say Marijuana Use Reduces Need for PainkillersNFL Players Say Marijuana Use Reduces Need for Painkillers

nationalpainreport.com/nfl-players-say-marijuana-use-reduces-need-for-painkillers-8831844.html

by Ed Coghlan

ESPN has released a survey of football players that chronic pain patients should note. The players said that if marijuana is legal, they use fewer painkillers.

Marijuana is legal in 23 states for medicinal purposes but remains one of eight drugs banned under the NFL’s policy and program on substances of abuse.

The ESPN survey is consistent with other data being gathered regarding marijuana use.  The National Pain Report reported on a study from the University of Georgia showed that if your state has approved the use of medicinal cannabis, there is a quantifiable decline in the use of traditional prescription drugs.

 “Generally, we found that when a medical marijuana law went into effect, prescribing for FDA-approved prescription drugs under Medicare Part D fell substantially,” investigators reported. “Ultimately, we estimated that nationally the Medicare program and its enrollers spent around $165.2 million less in 2013 as a result of changed prescribing behaviors induced by jurisdictions that had legalized medical marijuana.”

ESPN writes: Sixty-one percent of players in the survey said they believed fewer players would take pain-killing shots such as Toradol if marijuana were a legal option. Toradol is the most common anti-inflammatory taken by NFL players, and 64 percent of the survey’s respondents said they had taken an injection of it or another pain killer.

Still, 71 percent of the NFL players said they believe marijuana use should be legal. Four states — Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon — allow recreational use and voters in five more states, including California, will vote on the issue Nov. 8. Four additional states are considering initiatives involving marijuana for medical reasons. One of them—Montana—is voting to repeal its use.

NFL may be moving on finally allowing the use of marijuana. It appears the potential for relaxation is being driven by the public’s change in its (our) attitude toward the use of marijuana.

As Divya Ramesh of the University of Connecticut wrote recently, marijuana appears to work but we don’t know because it isn’t studied enough:

” Research in people suggest that certain conditions, such as chronic pain caused by nerve injury, may respond to smoked or vaporized cannabis, as well as an FDA-approved THC drug. But, most of these studies rely on subjective self-reported pain ratings, a significant limitation. Only a few controlled clinical trials have been run, so we can’t yet conclude whether cannabis is an effective pain treatment.”

One Response

  1. There are a couple statements in this article,that frankly piss me off.”We don’t know enough because it isn’t studied enough” and,”we can’t yet conclude if it is an effective pain treatment.” Will these people stop insulting the intelligence of the American people! After living almost 64 years,quite frankly I am sick and tired of these GD lies!

    I have no personal axe to grind.I haven’t used cannabis for a year now.When I have used it for chronic pain conditions I found it to be very helpful for pain,as have millions of others,for thousands of years.You can conclude it is an effective pain treatment.You just don’t want to conclude such.Do they think the NFL players are lying? Are they calling the millions of Americans who tell them it alleviates pain liars?Are they discounting the research that has been conducted in numerous other countries,and confirm it is beneficial and safe?Do they forget in early America it was sold as medicine in drug stores by pharmacitical companies such as Eli Lilly?Do they not know it was used in ancient China for thousands of years,as medicine.

    In spite of the catch 22 that the government created to hinder research,there has been ample research and confirmation in this country as to its analgesic benefits.A former DEA administrative judge by the name of Francis Young,way back in 1988,after reviewing 2 years of medical research,himself stated that it is one of the safest most active therapeutical agents known!

    They don’t need more research and they damn well know that.I am one of many who are sick and tired of the hypocrisy and lies and game playing.I am fed up with do nothing useless politicians,who know the truth,but are either to bought off or to cowardly to stop this unconstitutional war against a harmless helpful herb.As these disengenous babbling fools continue to spout the same lies decade after decade,people are still being arrested,families broken apart,and law enforcement resources wasted when there is a real drug epidemic they need to be focusing on.I am sorry or the harsh tone,but I am sick of the lies in a country that is supposed to stand for life,liberty,and pursuit of happiness.And I have no doubt that if our founding fathers,many of whom grew and used cannabis,could come back from the grave,and observe this injustice,they would agree with me one hundred percent.

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