substance for that length of time in order to have a clean test so that they re not flagged for substance abuse, and, you know, be looking at a possible suspension after that. this issue got a lot of attention this week in part because former philadelphia eagles player chris long who just announced his retirement, revealed on a radio show that he smoked during his playing days and he says, quote, i m not going to put a percentage on how much the league smokes but i certainly enjoyed my fair share on a regular basis throughout my career. testing players once a year for street drugs, which is a terrible classification for marijuana, is kind of silly because players know when the test is, we can stop, and in that month or two that you stop, you ll reach for the sleeping pills and the painkillers and the bottle a little bit more. walter, do you agree with this assessment? you know, i think chris is really telling the truth for a lot of players, a lot of guys know they can beat that tes
just the driver and one passenger were in the car. they both died. if you play football you get hurt. that s just a fact. and if you play at the pro level, pain management is a critical topic. but there is a long list of pain killing drugs that are banned by the nfl, including marijuana. for years some players have advocated easing rules on pot saying it should qualify as acceptable alternative therapy. and as more states legalize at least some use of marijuana that argument gets louder. as of now, 33 states in the district of columbia have passed laws that broadly allow the use of medical marijuana, ten states legalized it as a recreational drug. so now the nfl has apparently agreed to look closer at the use of medicinal marijuana. walter dunsten is a retired nfl player. played for the san diego chargersen a the arizona cardinals. good to have you with us. how big a deal is this. there are a lot of guys just like you say advocating for the use of marijuana fore pain