As attorney David Cornwell suggested in a Tuesday night statement regarding the Donte’ Stallworth situation, traces of marijuana were found in Stallworth’s blood in samples drawn after the March 15 incident that claimed the life of a pedestrian, according to the Miami Herald.
Attorney Christopher Lyons confirmed on Wednesday morning’s Joe Rose Show on WQAM radio that the Herald report is indeed accurate.
Given that marijuana can be detected in the system for more than a week after only one-time use, it’s unlikely that Stallworth was both legally drunk and illegally high.
The fact that Stallworth had any marijuana in his system suggests that he was no longer in the league’s substance abuse program as of March 2009. Because players in the program are required to submit repeatedly and continuously to random unannounced urine testing, Stallworth would have been required while in the program to avoid smoking pot at all -- or to find a Whizzinator.
The detection of marijuana in Stallworth’s system likely won’t change his status under the substance abuse program moving forward, given that the guilty plea to DUI manslaughter most likely will result in his return to the extensive testing protocol.
But he likely will be subjected to a broader treatment plan while in the program, given that the league now has hard evidence of both alcohol and marijuana abuse.