NFLPA Exec Dir DeMaurice Smith on Tuesday said that the union is "preparing a proposal that would amend the sport’s drug policies to take a 'less punitive' approach to dealing with recreational marijuana use by players," according to Mark Maske of the WASHINGTON POST. Smith said that the proposal will be "presented to [the] union’s board of player representatives." Smith said that if it then is "approved by those players ... the proposal will be made to the league." The NFL would have to "agree to any changes to the drug policy, which is negotiated and jointly administered by the league and players’ union." Marijuana use currently is "banned by the NFL and positive or missed tests can result in fines and suspensions for players." Smith said that the sport’s leaders "must keep in mind that there might be underlying reasons" for recreational marijuana use by players. Smith: “We have to do a better job of knowing if our players are suffering from other potentially dangerous psychological issues like depression, right? So if I look at this myopically as just a recreational use of marijuana and miss the fact that we might have players suffering from depression, what have I fixed?" Smith did not "provide specifics as to how the union might seek to reduce the penalties for marijuana use and said he did not know if the league would be receptive to such a proposal." The NFL "consistently has said in the past that it would consider revising its stance on marijuana only if advised to do so by medical experts" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 1/25).
TAKES TWO TO TANGO: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell yesterday said he has had "several conversations" with Smith on the topic. Goodell, appearing on Fox Sports Radio's "The Herd," said, "We'll always seek to find a better way to do things and see if the policy needs to be modified as we did two years ago. That will be one of the subjects, obviously, that we'll have in the collective bargaining process which we would like to get into sooner rather than later. It's in all parties' interests to extend the agreement (we) have now" ("The Herd," Fox Sports Radio, 1/25). ESPN's Dan Le Batard said, "It seems obvious that the rules are going to change on this, but the NFL is going to get something in return for this because this is going to be negotiated" ("Highly Questionable," ESPN, 1/25).
