Ravens’ Eugene Monroe believes NFL should reconsider marijuana policy

Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle Eugene Monroe believes that the NFL should reconsider its stance against marijuana use.

Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle Eugene Monroe believes that the NFL should reconsider its stance against marijuana use due to the drug’s potential benefits for players in pain, reports CNN’s Naydia Kounang.

Monroe told CNN that playing football “automatically gives you the symptom of chronic pain.”

“You’re hitting each other as hard as possible every single day in practice. Your body is in pain a lot of time,” Monroe said.

Rather than rely on opioids and noninflammatory medications, Monroe said many NFL players would prefer to turn to marijuana to help with pain relief.

The tackle added that there is concern over getting addicted to certain pain medications.

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Monroe feels the medical benefits of the drug should be looked into in spite of the NFL’s strict policy prohibiting marijuana use.

“The NFL will need to have legitimate information before they remove marijuana from the banned substance list and ultimately not hurt their product in the field,” Monroe said. "But there’s opportunity in that space also, for the NFL to get involved and maybe lead efforts.”