The overuse and abuse of narcotic pain medication in professional sports, especially contact sports, is enormous. The use of performance enhancing drugs is minuscule and almost meaningless in comparison.

It is a well-known mantra in the NFL that a player can’t make the team from the training room (nursing an injury instead of producing on the field). Players quickly learn that a cortisone shot will make it feel better in a few days. A percocet or vicodin will make if feel better right now. It is also commonly said that the letters NFL stands for ‘not-for-long’ if a player cannot consistently suit up and produce on the field for whatever reason.

After an average 3-year NFL career, daily pain medication is a way of life for many, if not most players. Players with average length careers (about 3 years) are often the marginal players whom are routinely relegated to the most dangerous duties, special teams. Veteran players with significantly longer tours of duty amass injuries due to length of service on the field of play.

Their career will one day end but the pain commonly does not. Year after year of daily physical abuse leads to substance overuse which in turn can often lead to abuse and dependence. The narcotic habit that developed during a player’s active career often continues far into retirement.

via Dr. Johnny C. Benjamin: Steroids are Just the Tip of the Iceberg in Professional Sports.

But at least they’re not smoking weed, right?  A player like Brett Favre opens up and admits his addiction to powerful narcotic painkillers and the league and the press welcome him with open arms and praise him for his “courageous battle”.  A player like Ricky Williams opens up and admits his medical use of marijuana for pain, inflammation, nausea, and social anxiety and the league boots him and the press taunts him as a “pothead”.

There is a reason the average lifespan of an NFL player is 55 years.  A lot of it has to do with the physical pounding they take week in week out, and especially for the lineman, the extra weight they carry.  But I believe a large reason for the shortened lifespan is the toxic toll all the painkillers, anti-inflammatories, and muscle relaxers dished out by team doctors take on these men’s organs.

Download the NORML Daily Audio Stash for 2008-02-15

It is with heavy heart that we publish today’s NORML Daily Audio Stash and dedicate it to the memory of Dr. John Morgan, M.D., who passed away suddenly today. Dr. Morgan was on the Board of Directors of NORML and co-author of the excellent debunking manual, Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts: A Review of the Scientific Evidence. John was a friend to so many in the movement and he was always ready to help in any way he could to fight the battle against the insanity of adult marijuana prohibition. He will be missed. Listen with the Stash as NORML Founder and Legal Counsel Keith Stroup remembers his friend, Dr. John Morgan, M.D.

[UPDATE: Here is video of Dr. Morgan from the Drug Policy Alliance, speaking about Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts. -- "R"R]

We also take our usual Friday look at the Cannabis Community with our CelebStoner.com blogmaster Steve Bloom with discussions about Amy Winehouse and the Grammy’s, Roger Clemens and steroids, and the officially endorsed CelebStoner.com presidential candidate, Barack Obama. NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre joins us to discuss the front-page LA Times article about the 2nd-largest doctor’s group recommending rescheduling of marijuana for medical purposes. And we get jammin’ with some new reggae from the Easy Star All-Stars.

Download your Audio Stash now and enjoy it all weekend! And you can join me for more political talk LIVE from 2pm-4pm Eastern on my show, The Russ Belville Show, airing on XM Satellite’s Air America Channel 167, Chicago’s AM 820 WCPT, and Sunday at 8am-10am Pacific on Portland’s AM 620 KPOJ.