Pubdate: Sun, 12 Aug 2012
Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Copyright: 2012 Orlando Sentinel
Contact:  http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/325
Author: Mike Bianchi

GREG REID SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN DISMISSED FROM FSU AFTER MARIJUANA CHARGE

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida State's national championship-contending
football program held its annual media day on Sunday, but, sadly,
cornerback Greg Reid -- a media favorite, a team leader and one of the
Seminoles' best players -- wasn't there.

He should have been.

But he was dismissed from the team last week following a traffic
arrest in which he was charged with a misdemeanor when police found a
small amount of marijuana in his car. Ironically, if Reid had been
arrested for DUI with an open bottle of Jack Daniels in the front
seat, he'd probably still be on the team.

"We look at alcohol like it's not a problem," FSU coach Jimbo Fisher
said Sunday during an engrossing, emotional dialogue about substance
abuse in college football. "Alcohol isn't illegal, and I understand
that, but I'll tell you what, it causes as many deaths and bad
circumstances as any other drug. But alcohol is accepted."

Fisher looks around at the horde of media members: "What if somebody
told everybody in this room that you can't drink a beer again or
you're going to get fired?"

The fact is marijuana has become like Miller Lite for many college and
professional athletes. Fisher has not stated a reason as to why Reid,
a senior cornerback, was suddenly and shockingly dismissed from the
team after a relatively minor marijuana offense. There has been
rampant speculation that Reid may have surpassed FSU's
three-strikes-and-you're-out university policy for testing positive
for marijuana.

This is one of my biggest pet peeves in sports and society -- why
alcohol is legal and accepted and marijuana is not. As Fisher himself
stated, alcohol is responsible for as much (actually more) death and
destruction than marijuana or any other drug.

I've written it once and I'll keep writing it: The legality of the two
substances notwithstanding, nobody can deny that alcohol causes much
more pain and suffering in sports than marijuana. Athletes don't
traditionally smoke marijuana and get behind the wheel of a car and
kill people. Or smoke marijuana and beat up their girlfriends. Or
smoke marijuana and get into bar fights. These are usually
alcohol-related transgressions. The only carnage athletes administer
after smoking pot is usually to a bag of Doritos or a box of Twinkies.

Full disclosure: I don't smoke pot although I do like to have a couple
of beers on occasion. But even the most avid beer lover can't deny
that booze is much more destructive than bongs.

Personally, I don't believe sports leagues -- colleges, included --
should even test for marijuana. The latest NCAA report released in
January found that more than one in four -- 26.7 percent -- college
football players said they smoked marijuana.

Fisher believes marijuana testing should be continued for players, but
not to "catch them but to help them." He says marijuana has become an
"epidemic" in colleges today, even more so than in the 1960s.

"I think it's bigger than it's ever been in our society, including
Woodstock and any of that," Fisher said. "aE& It's a tremendous issue
at high school and junior high levels, too. "aE& There's more drug and
alcohol abuse in this country than there's ever been. We can stick our
head in the sand and act like it's not there, but it is. It doesn't
make them bad kids; it's our job to help fix it."

One way to start is to stop kicking college kids out of school and
stigmatizing them for testing positive for pot. This would be like
kicking senior citizens out of The Villages for testing positive for
Viagra. College football should be like the NBA, which tests players
for marijuana, provides them drug-counseling if necessary but rarely
suspends them.

Fisher says we all should remember how some of these players grew up
before we start judging them. Many come from disadvantaged backgrounds
where drug use is prevalent.

"When they step into their house, people are smoking marijuana like
you do cigarettes from the time they're 3-years-old until they're 18,"
Fisher says. "aE& They do these things their whole life and then they
come here and we say, 'Now you can't do them anymore.' You don't
automatically [just stop doing them]."

And let's also remember why pot is illegal in the first place. MSNBC
did some research a few years ago and found marijuana was outlawed in
the 1930s mainly because of the ridiculous and racist rhetoric of
former federal narcotics commissioner Harry Anslinger, who believed
marijuana made black men "think they're as good as white men."

"There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are
Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers," Anslinger ranted to
Congress back then. "Their satanic music, jazz and swing, result from
marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual
relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others. . aE& Marijuana
leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing. aE& Marijuana is the
most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind."

Obviously, Anslinger was a lunatic, but nearly a century later his
maniacal influence is still being felt.

Not only in the American judicial system, but in college football
drug-testing policies as well.
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MAP posted-by: Matt