Brandon Marshall shares worries about secondhand pot smoke with NFL

AP

Jets wide receiver Brandon Marshall was in Jamaica for his sister’s wedding over the weekend, but there was more than just the nuptials on his mind.

In a tweet, Marshall said that “it smells like Denver over here” because of all the pot smoke that was in the air at the wedding and shared his hope that he doesn’t fail a drug test as a result of being in the vicinity. He then directed another tweet at the NFL’s account asking for assistance in dealing with the situation.

“Dear @NFL there’s smoke everywhere in Jamaica,” Marshall wrote. “I’m a occasional drinker (wine) red to be exact, but I do not smoke. Please help!!!”

Travis Henry once argued that a positive test for marijuana in 2007 was triggered by secondhand smoke — he eventually won his suspension appeal because the league didn’t allow an expert of his choosing to be present for the testing — but there’s not much else in the way of precedent on that front for Marshall. The league has since raised the threshold for a positive marijuana test, which will likely leave Marshall in the clear even if the air in Jamaica wasn’t so pristine.

53 responses to “Brandon Marshall shares worries about secondhand pot smoke with NFL

  1. The league could eliminate a lot of headaches for itself by just quietly raising the threshold to infinity.

  2. Since U can’t fail a drug test due to “2nd hand pot smoke”, it sounds like Mr. Marshall is making a laughable effort at launching a preemptive strike for when he fails a drug test.

  3. I don’t know what thresholds the NFL uses, but the levels of THC in secondhand smoke is so little that it’s almost impossible to fail a drug test that way

  4. Scientifically you cannot test positive for pot unless you actually smoked it. The second-hand smoke factor for pot does not exist. its a fact, look it up nut case. If you are positive brain job, that means you smoked it. You’re little wisecrack about “Denver over here” isn’t going to cut it for pee test results.

  5. He better stay out of NFL locker rooms, too.

    The second hand juice and smoke permeates those rooms.

  6. “Dear @NFL there’s smoke everywhere in Jamaica,” Marshall wrote. “I’m a occasional drinker (wine) red to be exact, but I do not smoke. Please help!!!”

    Don’t worry Brandon, “Everything’s gonna be alright!”

  7. While I understand the eyerolls in response to this (especially from Brandon Marshall) he may actually have a point.

    If you can get cancer from 2nd hand cigarette smoke it’s natural to wonder if THC can make it into your system in the same manner. I’m sure a tiny bit does.

    And in response to an Olympian in 2008 who tried this defense, I remember a scientist on TV saying it was basically impossible to fail THAT drug test due to 2nd hand smoke.

    However, the THC threshold for the NFL is ridiculously low compared to other drug tests. Like a fraction of the threshold for the Olympics & other pro sports leagues.

    So I actually wonder if maybe he does have a point?

  8. keiselsbeard says:

    Since U can’t fail a drug test due to “2nd hand pot smoke”, it sounds like Mr. Marshall is making a laughable effort at launching a preemptive strike for when he fails a drug test.
    ========================================

    Yep. I’m a certified tester. You can’t come up positive from second hand smoke, no matter what High Times tells you. Try using that defense if you come up hot in the military.

  9. keiselsbeard says:
    Jul 27, 2015 11:14 AM
    Since U can’t fail a drug test due to “2nd hand pot smoke”, it sounds like Mr. Marshall is making a laughable effort at launching a preemptive strike for when he fails a drug test.
    ——————————–

    Oh yes you can. Anyone who says you can’t is extremely uneducated on the subject. Just like second hand smoke from cigarettes can cause lung cancer, second hand smoke can be injested by bystanders in close proximity of the same room. Mj is fat soluble, so the thc is stored in fat cells and will stay in the person’s system long enough to flunk a test.

    In fact, I read a NY Times article last year during the Josh Gordon episode. The piece mentioned that the nfl’s Draconian 15 ng limit was acceptable in the early 90s when mj was added to the list of banned substances, but it had become outdated because today’s mj has a much higher level of thc.

  10. Love all the people who have never smoked pot telling us all that you can only fail a pot test from smoking first hand smoke.

    So I guess when someone exhales pot smoke, nobody else breathes it in. Like when someone shoots a gun to the sky, the bullet never falls.

    That’s how God made it.

    (P.S. God is a major pot grower. Like, the Super Kush Ultra OG of pot growers.)

  11. Having been around pot at various times in my life, I can say that a “contact buzz” from secondhand smoke is very real.

    So, if it’s a scientific fact (as some of you are claiming) that it’s impossible to register any level of THC from second hand smoke – I suppose players can just go ahead and get high all they want from second hand smoke. Because it’ll never register on a test, right? Wrong.

    I can’t believe that so may of you actually believe that second hand smoke has no affect. How astoundingly naive.

  12. Does this tactic work for other violations of the law, too?

    “I spent last week in Chicago, and there were soooo many murders. Obviously, Im gonna kill that dude once I get back home – there’s no way I could have avoided it”

  13. bbb82 says:
    Jul 27, 2015 11:46 AM
    Having been around pot at various times in my life, I can say that a “contact buzz” from secondhand smoke is very real.

    =============================

    Yeah 2nd hand smoke is VERY real if your mouth is over the ‘other’ end of the pipe or joint

  14. I don’t understand why second hand pot smoke would not cause some level to be detected in a blood test? Not at all, or just not enough to cause a failed test? Because as mentioned, being in the room with the smoke wafting around can give you a pretty good contact buzz.

    And hats off to Brandon for doing this. I bet he’s in the clear and knows it, and it just trying to prod the NFL into replying.

  15. All the self rightous “experts” on the subject, should remember that alcohol is a drug and the most abused drug of all, costs this country billions every year in lost lives, lost jobs, broken homes, domestic abuse, etc., plus the harmful effects on the body are too numerous to count. More and more states are legalizing pot because intelligent and educated people can see the hypocrisy of these antiquated laws and it’s time the NFL stepped into the light of modern science. I’m not advocating driving while impaired on any substance but the NFL needs to focus more on maintaining the credibility of the game itself and less on being the morality police.
    Most work places have drug testing as a matter of safety and all the NFL has to do is quietly adopt the same policies that are in place in other major industries without making each misstep a life altering scandal.
    Meanwhile the rehab business is booming because alcohol/substance abuse is an illness (unless you play professional sports).

  16. Sounds to me he probably took part in a little bit of partying at that wedding reception and is covering his butt – just in case.

    As for myself I work for a drug testing lab facility where we get pop tests 2x a year, so I am always very very very careful that I’m not anywhere where weed is being smoked and I haven’t gotten high myself since college 18 years ago.

  17. bbb82 says: Jul 27, 2015 11:46 AM

    Having been around pot at various times in my life, I can say that a “contact buzz” from secondhand smoke is very real.

    So, if it’s a scientific fact (as some of you are claiming) that it’s impossible to register any level of THC from second hand smoke – I suppose players can just go ahead and get high all they want from second hand smoke. Because it’ll never register on a test, right? Wrong.

    I can’t believe that so may of you actually believe that second hand smoke has no affect. How astoundingly naive.

    —–

    A CNN reporter went on a “cannabis cruise” in Denver after MJ was legalized. There were cameras in the vehicle, and folk lighting up joints, pipes, etc. It wasn’t long before the reporter was all silly and giggling.

    It is definitely possible to get a contact high, especially in a confined space. And depending on the threshold you’re testing for, you could easily fail a drug test. The Olympic threshold is 150 ng, while the NFL tested to 15 ng up until recently, when it was raised to 35 ng. And if they’re looking for anything greater than 0 ng, just being around it could fail you.

  18. So you’re telling me that I cannot fail a drug test unless the J, pipe, or bong actually touches my lips? Because everything outside of that is 2nd hand smoke. If that is not true, how close (in feet) can I get to someone smoking pot without failing the test? Like 3 feet? 6 feet? 10 feet? I just need an approximation.

  19. Sounds like he’s trying to get out ahead of a pending positive test. He should know to stay away from cannabis, especially since he knows when and where the test will occur. Like they say, money doesn’t make you any smarter.

  20. I know of people in the construction industry who work in nuclear plants and will run out of the area if any one is smoking weed. They are taking no chances due to past testing of co-workers who were banned due to second hand smoke.

  21. If you are outside and someone is smoking pot, yeah, you’re not going to test positive for 2nd hand smoke.

    If you’re hanging out in a room where people are smoking and baking it out and you’re just sitting there not smoking, yeah you may test positive.

    It’s not that hard to figure this out

    Either way this dude just sounds really really stupid

  22. Gee…if only he had enough money to buy an over the counter drug test or even to go to a lab and pay to get himself tested just to be sure… maybe he should start a kickstarter campaign

  23. There is a real point that if marijuana is fully legal in Denver and Seattle it is unreasonable to expect that players stay away from environments where marijuana is being smoked. It’s ok to have a policy that they don’t smoke themselves, but I don’t think you can prevent second hand smoke without imposing something borderline illegal on the players. There would have to be a small amount that were to be considered the effect of possible second hand inhalation that would not break the policy.

  24. cliverush says:
    Jul 27, 2015 12:45 PM

    I know of people in the construction industry who work in nuclear plants and will run out of the area if any one is smoking weed. They are taking no chances due to past testing of co-workers who were banned due to second hand smoke.

    ——

    That’s fine when weed is illegal. What if it isn’t like in Colorado and it’s just against corporate policy? Should you be forced to leave a friends house when they are smoking and breaking no laws? You can be there when they are smoking cigarettes and drinking without partaking with no penalty? Once weed is legal, shouldn’t it be the same?

  25. Actually I can kind of understand his concern but wouldn’t an email or phone call have been more appropriate if he was really that worried?

  26. chrispy0515 says:
    Jul 27, 2015 12:31 PM

    Sounds to me he probably took part in a little bit of partying at that wedding reception and is covering his butt – just in case.

    As for myself I work for a drug testing lab facility where we get pop tests 2x a year, so I am always very very very careful that I’m not anywhere where weed is being smoked and I haven’t gotten high myself since college 18 years ago.

    ———-

    Should you have to do that if weed is legal? Doesn’t it become more like alcohol then?

    “Colorado law specifies that drivers with five nanograms of active tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in their whole blood can be prosecuted for driving under the influence (DUI). However, no matter the level of THC, law enforcement officers base arrests on observed impairment.”

    Shouldn’t that become the drug testing policy when weed is legal? Same as alcohol? For jobs where there is a zero tolerance for alcohol on the job there should also be a zero tolerance for THC in their whole blood, but hair samples and things like that should no longer be tested. It would be about current impairment.

  27. Ted Wells says it is more likely than not, that second hand smoke does NOT show up in tests.

    However, Patriots fans are contesting and asked Cheech and Chong to rebutt the Wells finding.

  28. If I’m not mistaken the nfl has the players take urine tests, not hair tests which are much more likely to show traces from secondhand smoke.

    Chances are he was smoking up a storm himself and trying to create and excuse if he tests positive.

  29. I’ve hot boxed far too many friends to believe you can’t get high on 2nd hand smoke. Maybe in a large room or outside, but in a car with the windows up and 2 or 3 being passed, you WILL get high.

  30. This is as obvious as Wells actually putting in his report that “There wasn’t a sting against the Patriots” Why would Marshall even joke about it if he wasn’t worried about getting busted. He thinks this gives him an alibi? Give me a break. Just why would Wells, who was suppose to be investigating the deflated football controversy as an independent investigator, feel the need to convince anyone of a league witch hunt and cover-up?

  31. This is as obvious as Wells actually putting in his report that “There wasn’t a sting against the Patriots” Why would Marshall even joke about it if he wasn’t worried about getting busted. He thinks this gives him an alibi? Give me a break. Just like why would Wells, who was suppose to be investigating the deflated football controversy as an independent investigator, feel the need to convince anyone of a league witch hunt and cover-up as false?

  32. I have vacationed in Jamaica, and although there was just about any drug you could want available for purchase, the ONLY time I saw anyone smoking was when we went snorkeling off shore. The two guys that brought us out sparked a giant doober once we were all in the water. Granted it was a resort, but I do believe pot is illegal in Jamaica for the most part. Test the idiot and suspend him for stupidity.

  33. Marshall is an awful human being and an even worse teammate…I mean who claims they have a mental disorder just to Get attention and to us as a scapegoat for awful behavior. Good luck getting hung out to dry by geno in In New York

  34. jetfanfolife says:
    Jul 27, 2015 12:16 PM

    bbb82 says:
    Jul 27, 2015 11:46 AM
    Having been around pot at various times in my life, I can say that a “contact buzz” from secondhand smoke is very real.

    =============================

    Yeah 2nd hand smoke is VERY real if your mouth is over the ‘other’ end of the pipe or joint

    16 up 25 down

    =============================

    25 of you never heard of a shotgun?!

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