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Orlando Sentinel: Sports suffers from double standard when comparing marijuana, alcohol
Written by Mike Bianchi   
Friday, 17 April 2009

Before the NFL Scouting Combine, University of Florida star Percy Harvin should have gotten drunk out of his gourd, puked on his shoes and passed out behind the wheel of his car.

If only he had done that instead of hypothetically smoking a marijuana joint and perhaps laughing uncontrollably at The Three Stooges Meet Hercules then maybe Pro Football Weekly would not be calling Harvin the biggest risk in the upcoming NFL draft.

Sadly, this is the confounding, contradictory world we live in — a world where Harvin would be more appealing to NFL teams if he'd been arrested for a police-confirmed DUI than he is now because of an unproven Internet report that he tested positive for marijuana at the Combine.

The unconfirmed report, printed by NFLDraftBible.com, set the wheels in motion for Harvin to be labeled a monumental character risk by Pro Football Weekly. Meanwhile, the ruling hypocrisy of sports continues to promote and glamorize the use of a much more dangerous and prevalent controlled substance — alcohol — through its lucrative beer sponsorships on TV and beer sales inside stadiums and arenas.

The legality of the two substances notwithstanding, nobody can deny that alcohol causes much more pain and suffering in sports than marijuana. Case in point: The two recent and fatal sports-related accidents tied to drinking and driving

Last week, promising young California Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart was among three people killed after an alleged drunk driver with a blood-alcohol content three times the legal limit blew through a red light and broadsided the car Adenhart was riding in.

Last month, Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte Stallworth hit and killed a pedestrian who was crossing a causeway in South Florida. Blood tests revealed Stallworth had a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit and he was charged with DUI manslaughter.

No, I'm not here today to give Harvin a free pass if he smoked pot. If indeed the reports are true he tested positive for marijuana, I'd be wary about drafting him. Not because of the evils of reefer madness, but because any player dumb enough to smoke weed when he knows he's going to be drug-tested probably isn't very committed to his profession.

Still, it's hard to ignore the massive double standard in sports between alcohol and marijuana. Look no further than Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, whose sport suspended him and a major sponsor abandoned him when a photograph surfaced recently showing Phelps using a marijuana bong. Contrast that mammoth controversy to five years ago when Phelps was arrested for drunken driving and was allowed to continue swimming and didn't lose a single endorsement.

Now ask yourself: What's worse — taking a bong hit at a college party or getting snockered and putting yourself and others at risk by climbing behind the wheel of your Hummer?

Why are professional athletes repeatedly suspended and fined for smoking pot, but not so much for abusing alcohol? Why do most pro sports leagues have black-and-white policies and punishments for marijuana use, but a gray area when it comes to DUI or other alcohol-related crimes?

One marijuana advocacy group — Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) — is asking these very questions. The organization was launched in Denver four years ago after two alcohol overdose deaths on college campuses in Colorado. Mason Tver, co-founder of SAFER, notes that there has never been a documented case of anyone dying of a marijuana overdose.

"Marijuana is much safer than alcohol and we want to highlight the harm and irrationality of laws and penalties that steer people — athletes and sports fans included — toward drinking and away from marijuana use," Tver says.

Full disclosure here: I love a beer or two when tailgating with friends or watching the Magic play in a sports bar. Most fans do, in fact, drink responsibly and believe a couple of beers positively enhance their sporting experience. But you're blind if you can't see that alcohol abuse is a much more serious problem in sports than is pot smoking.

Whenever an athlete gets arrested for domestic violence, a fight or any other act of aggression, alcohol is invariably involved. Meanwhile, there has never been any reputable study that linked marijuana to violent behavior — unless, of course, you count the pot smoker's customary terrorization of a bag of Oreos.

The same goes for fan behavior. The biggest brawl in NBA history was started when a beer was thrown on Ron Artest. And who will ever forget the tragic shooting death of an undercover police officer during a drunken tailgating party at a UCF football game four years ago? Witnesses at the time said the accidental shooting occurred when one of the officers confronted a rowdy group of tailgaters, some of whom threw beer on him.

Such is the duplicity of sports.

You can go 10 drinks over the legal limit and you're fine, but if you go one toke over the line you suddenly become a character risk.
 

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