In light of the controversy and success of an advertisement for medical marijuana appearing in a recent edition of The New York Times, medicinal cannabis advocacy group, Americans for Safe Access recently partnered with Leafly, the masterminds behind this highly publicized campaign, and emerged with an ad that will run in the USA Today’s NFL Special Edition.
The ads, which are scheduled to appear in several markets for the next 30 days, is an attempt to send a message to the NFL that despite their outdated drug polices, medical marijuana is a safer alternative to dangerous prescription narcotics. “100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain,” followed by “9 in 10 retired players suffer from pain on a daily basis,” reads the ad, which brandishes an unaffiliated football player marked by the number 31… we’re guessing 420 was too much stoner for the cause.
The USA Today advertisement will appear in markets affiliated with the Atlanta Falcons, Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos, Green Bay Packers, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, New York Giants, and Philadelphia Eagles, with hopes of getting NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to make good on recent statements, in which he said he would consider allowing players to treat concussions with medical marijuana.
“Those teams represent a variety of states that have either legalized cannabis recreationally, have established or are planning to launch some sort of medical cannabis program, or have no sort of legalization whatsoever,” according to a statement by Leafly. “Consequently, we feel that these ads will reach not only a wide audience of football fans who may not be familiar with cannabis’ therapeutic properties, but call attention to the pivotal crossroads the organization is currently facing and urge the league to support medical cannabis and allow its players the choice of legal, safe, and reasonable use of cannabis for valid medical reasons without repercussion.”
Despite talks of allowing medical marijuana in the NFL, there has not been any move by league officials to indicate they are serious about making the change. However, in a bizarre twist to the sports medicine conundrum, it was announced earlier last week that KannaLife Sciences is working to provide FDA-approved cannabis medicine to NFL players who have sustained head trauma.
Unfortunately, this appears to be the path the federal government is taking to make medical marijuana available on a national level: pot in pill form that the FDA can regulate with a foot, or in this case, a cleat on its neck.
