World class athletes have been caught using recreational drugs for years but what makes the recent cases of Tim Lincecum, Michael Phelps, and Santonio Holmes remarkable is that they have been outed at the peak of their careers. In these three instances, law enforcement has helped obliterate the mainstream myth that marijuana smokers cannot be overachievers in amazing physical conditions.

They All Do It

Rob Dibble, an all-star pitcher who played in the late 1980s and early 1990s, estimated that teams he played for varied from 20-60% in marijuana usage rates. In the late 1990s a New York Times investigation estimated the marijuana usage rate of players in the NBA to be at 60-70%. (A figure Josh Howard reasserted in 2008, LINK.)

Of course, the New York Times piece portrayed this as a sign “the party life style associated with the game is spinning out of control.” It then interviewed NBA players like Derek Harper who said it was “scary” because you might be playing against a guy on drugs and not know it, and Karl Malone who thought fans had a right to know if the players used recreational drugs and that privacy concerns about testing were ridiculous because, “you have too many knuckleheads out there, too many guys doing crazy things without realizing the consequences.”

Those Consequences

There is a strong case that – just like with alcohol – the moderate use of marijuana and other recreational drugs in one’s free time has little or no effect on performance. Professional athletics is hyper-competitive. As soon as you lose a step to the countless competitors behind you, you are gone. If marijuana use impeded performance it is doubtful the usage rates would be so high with million dollar salaries at stake.

Mark Stepnoski (pictured) played 13 seasons in the NFL as a center winning two Super Bowls and going to five pro bowls. He smoked marijuana throughout his college and professional career saying, “To me it’s all about responsibility. There’s a time and a place for everything.”

Stepnoski, who is now a marijuana legalization activist, has also pointed out his Super Bowl coach, Jimmy Johnson, had a different theory than Karl Malone.

As long as you did your job for him and did it well, he wasn’t going to snoop into what you were doing the rest of the time. It wasn’t his responsibility to be your parent or your guardian or anything else.

Despite the New York Times dire warning in the late 1990s the NBA is still thriving.

Other Notable Outed Athletes

NFL

Randy Moss (WR) – In high school spent a week in solitary confinement for smoking marijuana. Was kicked out of Florida State for smoking marijuana. Caught with marijuana by law enforcement in 2001. Tested positive for marijuana in the NFL in 2002. Implied was still smoking marijuana in 2005. In 1998 broke rookie NFL record for touchdown catches in a season. In 2007 broke NFL record for touchdown catches in a season.

Others: Kevin Faulk (caught at a Lil Wayne concert with marijuana in 2008), Percy Harvin, Michael Irvin, Curtis Johnson, Marshawn Lynch, Mario Manningham, Amobi Okoye, Lawrence Taylor, Ricky Williams

Link to a dozen NFL players caught with possession since 2008.

NBA

Kareem Abdul Jabbar (C) – In his 20 year career he scored more points than anyone else in the history of the game. Won six MVP awards and six NBA championships. Has been caught with marijuana by law enforcement twice, in 1998 and 2000.

Others: Carmelo Anthony, Mookie Blaylock, Marcus Camby, Josh Howard, Allen Iverson, LeBron James, Shawn Kemp, Vernon Maxwell, Lamar Odom, Robert Parish, Isaiah Rider, Damon Stoudamire, Rasheed Wallace, Chris Webber

MLB

Ferguson Jenkins (P) – Eighteen year veteran won the Cy Young Award in 1971. Was caught with cocaine and marijuana in 1980 and retired in 1983.

Joe Pepitone (OF) – Three time all-star and Gold Glove winner Pepitone wrote in his 1975 memoir that he once shared a joint with Mickey Mantle before a spring training game. Mantle had never had marijuana before. He struck out four times in that game and spent much of his time in the dugout giggling. He told Pepitone, “I don’t know what that shit is, but keep it away from me.”

Others: Dock Ellis, Dwight Gooden, Keith Hernandez (testified that in the early 1980s 40% of MLB players used cocaine), Steve Howe, Paul Molitor, Otis Nixon, Dave Parker, Tim Raines (confessed to sliding into bases head first to avoid breaking the vial of cocaine he kept in his back pocket), Darryl Strawberry, Willie Wilson

Note: Much of the baseball outing in the 1980s stemmed from the Pittsburgh drug trials in which the legendary Willie Stargell was accused of distributing amphetamines by two players on the stand.

Fastest Man In the World

Usain Bolt – In 2009 admitted to smoking marijuana as a kid. LINK

Links of Note:

In 1970 Dock Ellis pitched a no-hitter while on LSD. (Less than 300 have been thrown in Major League Baseball history since 1875.) Here is a great animated short set to him recounting the tale. (Thanks to Chip for tip.)

Hall of Fame baseball player Mike Schmidt discussing how amphetamines, “greenies,” were readily available in baseball clubhouses during his career (1972-1989) – LINK.

Sources:
1. “Outside the Lines: Marijuana in Sports,” ESPN, 24 Feb. 2003. LINK
2. Albert Theodore Powers, The Business of Baseball (2003).
3. Selena Roberts, “Marijuana and Pro Basketball,” New York Times, 26 Oct. 1997. LINK

Few celebrities are willing to take on the drug war. To do so would risk alienating fans, and more importantly, sponsors. Two decades ago there was a man who had the balls. His name was Bill Hicks.

Hicks not only related his positive experiences with drugs beyond marijuana, but he also assailed prohibitionist myths with gusto:

If I were going to legalize a drug it sure wouldn’t have been alcohol. Sorry. There’s better drugs and better drugs for you. That’s a fact. You may stop your internal dialogue. “But Bill alcohol is an acceptable …” Shut the fuck up. You’re wrong. Kay? Kay?

He addressed the hypocrisy of the government’s anti-drug ads that ran beside alcohol ads. He addressed the bias of the media that only covered drug scare stories and only featured users who were morons:

You never see positive drug stories on the news do you? Isn’t that weird. Since most of the experiences I’ve had were real fucking positive … How about a positive LSD story. Wouldn’t that be newsworthy? Just once to base your decision on information rather than scare tactics, and superstitions and lies. Just once. I think it would be newsworthy.

Despite his own problems with alcohol, Hicks fiercely defended the right of adults to use whatever substance they wanted. Hicks died of pancreatic cancer in 1994 at the age of 32. The cancer was not related to his drug use but the truth has never bothered those whom Hicks railed against:

Oh, yeh, Bill Hicks, hes the moron who used massive amounts of cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs until his body broke down and rewarded him with cancer for his lack of self-respect and he died young. In other words, a typical hippie Democrap. I wonder if he was a Community Organizer, too?

Sources:

1. Bill Hicks, Live (2004).
2. Last quote from “CharlessMartel” on YouTube messageboard. LINK

R.I.P. Albert Hofmann

News organizations have acknowledged that their coverage leading up to the Iraq War was “far too deferential and uncritical.” (LINK) At least they had an excuse – how do you investigate cooked “intelligence” cloaked in “national security”? When will news organizations acknowledge they have perpetuated the War on Drugs by echoing its falsehoods? Is it too much to ask that they investigate scientific literature?

A case in point is the AP article, “Albert Hofmann, Father of Drug LSD, Dies in Switzerland” written by Frank Jordans. The bias is exposed in the opening sentence:

Albert Hofmann, the father of the mind-altering drug LSD whose medical discovery inspired – and arguably corrupted – millions in the 1960s hippie generation, has died.

LSD alters the mind temporarily. There is no evidence it affects the brain permanently. Is alcohol “mind-altering”? Is being sleep-deprived “mind-altering”? Who did LSD corrupt? Did it corrupt the youth into protesting the Vietnam War and segregation?

By plucking and placing quotes Jordans also gave the impression that Hofmann agreed that LSD had to be kept from responsible adults by law enforcement so that there are not “catastrophic consequences,” and that LSD should only be taken out of, “scientific interest.”

Of course, Jordans couldn’t restrain his moralizing and also had to wander into the land of urban myths and outright lies to justify its criminalization:

But away from the psychedelic trips, horror stories emerged about people going on murder sprees or jumping out of windows while hallucinating. Heavy users suffered permanent psychological damage.

The U.S. government banned LSD in 1966 and other countries followed suit.

Murder sprees? Is it 1955? Who’s feeding Jordans this crap, J. Edgar Hoover? Can the press still get away with this? Jordans knows that when these LSD horror tales have been investigated they turned out to be blarney which is why he used the untraceable and unverifiable language of “horror stories emerged.” Yes, a microscopically minute percentage of people have used LSD in idiotically irresponsible manners and hurt themselves. The same can be said for alcohol, cars, ladders, gas stoves, and trampolines.

There is no evidence LSD causes brain damage. (It can exacerbate the symptoms of those who already suffer from mental health disorders.)

Of course this article failed to mention how acid was intricately linked with the early developers of the modern computer like Steve Jobs. (Bill Gates did it too.) It doesn’t mention how the likes of Aristotle, Plato, & Cicero partook of a natural form of LSD in the rites of the Eleusinian Mysteries. And it doesn’t mention how responsible users often describe tripping as one of the most awesome experiences of their lives.

In the words of Albert Hofmann himself on the 50th anniversary of his discovery:

You, my dear friends, and millions all over the world who now commemorate the 50th birthday of [LSD], we all testify gratefully that we got valuable help on the way to what Aldous Huxley said is the end and the ultimate purpose of human life–enlightenment, beatific vision, love. I think all these joyful testimonies of invaluable help by LSD should be enough to convince the health authorities, finally, of the nonsense of the prohibition of LSD and of similar psychedelics.

For an LSD article that dares to stray from the “Just Say No” party line go to Wired, LINK.

Sources:

1. “Albert Hofmann Foundation,” Hoffman.org, ret. 1 May 2008. LINK
2. AP, “Study: Bush Led U.S. to War on ‘False Pretenses,’ Hundreds of False Statements on WMDs, al-Qaida Used to Justify Iraq War,” MSNBC.com, 23 Jan. 2008, ret. 30 Apr. 2008. LINK
3. Robert Arthur, You Will Die: The Burden of Modern Taboos (2007). LINK
4. Frank Jordans, “Albert Hofmann, Father of Drug LSD, Dies in Switzerland,” AP, 30 Apr. 2008, ret. news.yahoo.com, 1 May 2008. LINK