In addition to Barack Obama being elected to serve another four years as President of the United States on Tuesday, we also saw some significant changes in the laws pertaining to marijuana use across the country. Voters in Washington and Colorado approved a law that will legalize the use of marijuana by adults in their states. That means Peyton Manning, Willis McGahee, Felix Hernandez and others can now smoke pot whenever they please, right? Not quite.
Neither the MLB nor the NFL is reportedly planning to change its policy regarding marijuana use among players, so as of now the law hardly applies to players. According to USA TODAY, NFL players would still be subject to fines or suspensions if they are found to have marijuana in their systems. Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports said the same will be true of the MLB, where a positive test will still lead to a 50-game suspension.
What does all this mean? The short answer is nothing. Unless players from Colorado and Washington want to jeopardize their eligibility, they’re best bet is to pretend the law never even passed and go about their business. San Francisco Giants fans will probably be jealous judging by some of their antics in the past, but you can always get a prescription in California. Aside from some jokes about Tim Lincecum wanting to be traded to Seattle or Colorado and recruits now banging down the doors at colleges in those states, it will pretty much be business as usual.
H/T Hardball Talk
