Digger44 said:
I had a friend who is now deceased who played TE for Miami (George Macintosh). He was clipped and blew out his knee. Never played again, got a nfl settlement. He said even in the early to mid 90's MaryJ was not the drug of choice becuase it couldn't take the pain away after the game. It was recreational. George, and his crowd took coke to dull the pain. Of coarse, that is addictive and damaging.
Cannabis has never been a drug of choice for acute pain management.. chronic pain management, like Fibromyalgia patients, yes, but not the type of thing a football player goes through with injury. Ricky claimed to be self-medicating a mental disorder, not physical... I know you know this, I just want to be clear about the comparison.
Digger44 said:
So, who knows what Ricky played with if he is so open about MaryJ.
Personally, I believe Ricky when he claims that cannabis was all he "played with". My opinion is based on what I know of him, the philosophies he follows, and especially his interview with Mike Wallace (I think) where he was asked if he worried that his cannabis use would lead to other more dangerous drugs, or if it already had, and Ricky asked, "More dangerous?" Then went on to cite an occasional glass of wine, and succumbing to cravings for sugar every once in a while. I believe that answer was sincere... I believe that Ricky believes that alcohol and sugar are more damaging to his body than cannabis (I would also agree with him on that). Combine that with the fact that the Eastern philosophies that Ricky follows all preach the "body as a temple" principle, and I find his answer even more inline with what he claims to believe. Absolutely, I could be 100% off-base here, it's just my impression. And again, back to your point about drugs causing the damage, we have no idea what his early life was like, teenagers do stupid things and there are plenty of drugs that do permanent and even chromosmal damage, but not cannabis. Friend of mine fried his brain forever on PCP, and he was a star athelete and honor student. So who knows.
jimmyjames said:
I just find it ironic that if he continued to take paxil, welbutrin, zoloft, kolonopin, lithium, prozac or whatever he was treating his social anxiety disorder with, he would probably still be playing in the NFL. But becuse he smoked pot he is not allowed to play. Which of those do you think has the most long term side effects?
One entire side of my family is almost all on anti-depressants, with a rich history of family mental illness. At least one of my family members is on, or has been on every single drug you mentioned, I can tell you firsthand, some of those are very, very nasty, and the side effects can't even be compared to those of cannabis, not even in the same ballpark. The funny thing is, the ONLY "crazy" relative that has been "cured", has been off his meds for 7 years, and replaced his medicine cabinet full of pharmacuticals with St. John's Wort and Cannabis, and a very strict diet. The rest of them are just as messed up as they were before medication, just messed up in a different way.
