In today’s McClatchy Newspapers, sports columnist Jan Hubbard touches upon a genuinely unexplored and not-totally-absurd suggestion that NBA Commissioner David Stern and NORML partner to solve an ongoing and seemingly never-ending problem: ending cannabis prohibition in America.
While Hubbard may have had tongue firmly in cheek, the suggestion that it is PROHIBITION, not the responsible use of cannabis by NBA players—similar to the current alcohol, tobacco and prescription drug use policy that NBA players, like most every worker in the country, work under—there is an obvious mutuality and bridge to gap between the cannabis law reform community and professional sports associations, like the cannabis-laden NBA.
I assume recent cannabis arrestee and #9 pick in the 2007 NBA draft Joakim Noah would agree with Hubbard!
It would seem to make sense for the NBA’s next social endeavor to join forces with NORML – aka the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.Can you imagine how many of the NBA’s image problems would be eliminated if marijuana were legal?
Radio interviews would be delightfully boring. The rookie transition program could have 100 percent attendance. Players trying to sneak marijuana on a plane by wrapping it in foil would not be stopped by a metal detector.
For the NBA, legalizing marijuana is the equivalent of outer space in Star Trek. It’s the final frontier. It’s a chance for Stern to boldly go where no commissioner has gone.
(For those of you not blessed with a sense of humor or the ability to spot tongue lodged in cheek, please do not take the preceding suggestion too seriously).