WeedLife News Network

Retired NFL players use opioids at four times the rate of the general population, according to one study, and marijuana advocates say there’s a safer, healthier alternative available.

While the NFL draft dominated the Ben Franklin Parkway on Friday, several former players met at the Union League to discuss medical marijuana with cannabis entrepreneurs, scientists, and advocates.

If the Cowboys owner gets his way, we could see fewer player suspensions.

Franco Harris is joining to movement for medical marijuana. While the Steelers legend is in good physical and mental health after a lengthy football career, he openly approves marijuana use for the days he doesn't feel so great and has become a strong advocate for current players to use the plant for medicine.

What’s happening in the NFL is an example of what your weed-loving friends have always told you.

As society continues to wrestle with the acceptability, or not, of marijuana, the NFL and NFL Players Association try to strike a proper balance regarding the permissibility of the substance.

HOUSTON (NEXSTAR MEDIA) — Marijuana is currently on the list of substances banned by the NFL but several former players are hoping to change that.

PHILADELPHIA -- The conversation about marijuana's place in the NFL is heating up.

Leaders of the NFL Players Association are preparing a proposal that would amend the sport’s drug policies to take a “less punitive” approach to dealing with recreational marijuana use by players, according to the union’s executive director, DeMaurice Smith.

It’s been a landmark year for medical marijuana in football.

Seantrel Henderson isn’t your typical user. Marijuana serves as a pain reliever for the 24-year-old Buffalo Bills offensive lineman who was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease one year ago. Doctors told Henderson medical marijuana was the best medicine for his inflammatory bowel disease, which caused the 2014 seventh-round selection to have 80 centimeters of intestines removed during two different surgeries last year. Still, the NFL suspended Henderson 10 games in late November for violating the league’s substance abuse policy for the second time this season. 

If he gets caught again, Seantrel Henderson will be banned for life.

Many NFL players are finding that marijuana offers a safer alternative to pain management than anti-inflammatory medication and are beginning to push for the NFL and the NFL Players Association to reconsider the substance abuse rules that the two sides negotiated.

Kyle Turley believes marijuana counters the effects of CTE and he wants the NFL to allow players to use it.

Changes in the country's attitude toward marijuana use may be taking effect in football.

Jim McMahon will appear on ‘Thursday Night Football’ in his home state stumping not for the navy blue and orange — but for green.

Jim McMahon will appear on ‘Thursday Night Football’ in his home state stumping not for the navy blue and orange — but for green.

Apart from the reality that it’s the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do for the business of the NFL.

The NFL continues an authoritarian stance on marijuana use while team doctors still dole out powerful and addictive painkillers.

Former NY Giants defensive lineman Leonard Marshall has partnered with a New Jersey pharmacy to market medical marijuana.