Ravens’ Monroe urges NFL to end marijuana ban

11:58 AM ET

The NFL needs to reduce the use of opioids and allow injured players to use medical marijuana, Baltimore Ravens tackle Eugene Monroe wrote in a first-person essay for The Players Tribune that was published Monday.

“The NFL relies heavily on opioids to get players back on the field as soon as possible, but studies have shown medical marijuana to be a much better solution,” Monroe wrote in an essay titled ‘Getting off the T Train.’ “(Medical marijuana) is safer, less addictive and can even reduce opioid dependence.”

Monroe points out that the NFL and its players union, the NFLPA, ban any use of marijuana. He says it’s time for that stance to end, and he calls for the league and union to:

Remove marijuana from the banned substance list

Fund marijuana research — especially as it relates to the brain disease CTE

Stop “overprescribing addictive and harmful opiods.”

“I’m not asking the NFL to prescribe players cannabis,” Monroe wrote. “I’m calling on the league to remove its testing protocols for cannabis. It just makes sense.”

Monroe is entering his eighth season in the league. He was a first-round pick of Jacksonville in 2009, and played there before being traded to the Ravens in 2013.

“How can a league so casual about the use of addictive opioids take such a hard line on a drug that might provide …

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