A few weeks ago one of the players on the college baseball team was kicked off due to smoking marijuana.
This has started a debate on campus, because most of us don’t understand why this happened.
Weed is not a performance-enhancing drug, so what’s the big deal? If a person does cocaine it gives them an unnatural burst of energy and focus, so athletes shouldn’t use it during games. Taking opioids can reduce pain and inflammation, and help a hurt play to play a little better. But what benefits does cannabis give an athlete? The only situation where I see cannabis being a performance-enhancing drug is for the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest. This has led to a series of public debates on campus about cannabis use, and its legality. A large protest group even picketed the baseball stadium, because they felt it unfair that this poor student lost his scholarship just for smoking a little cannabis. I have listened to a few of these debates, and nobody has managed to change my mind about cannabis. While I think it is foolish for an athlete to smoke cannabis, by no means should be against the rules. If people want to smoke cannabis, let them! Slowly this country is changing the way it thinks about cannabis, but we still have a long way to go. Eventually marijuana will be as commonplace as tobacco or alcohol, and I think this country will be better off for it. The bottom line is that marijuana is not a performance-enhancing drug, and never has been.