Former Giants running back Tiki Barber is now an investor in the growing industry of legal marijuana, and he thinks plenty of NFL players are customers.
Barber said on FOX Business that NFL players have no trouble stopping using marijuana just to pass their annual drug test.
“We always used to call it like the ‘dummy test’ because you know when the test is going to happen so just be clean and as long as you’re not in the program you can probably get away with it even if they technically know that it’s happening,” Barber said.
Most NFL players are tested for recreational drugs just once a year, starting on 4/20. Once they’ve tested negative, they’re free to smoke pot all they want until it’s time to get it out of their systems for the next year’s test.
Barber, who is a partner in an investment firm that gives backing to startup cannabis businesses, said he thinks the NFL should stop suspending players who test positive, many of whom are using it for pain management associated with football injuries.
“We’ve seen the punitive nature with which the NFL attacks users of cannabis and I believe a lot of these guys are just self-medicating. They don’t want to be caught in the opioid addiction crisis that has affected a lot of former players because of the constant damage to your knees and your joints and that’s not even to mentioning the head trauma,” he said.
A handful of players find themselves in trouble with the league for failing a marijuana test each year. Many more know they can use marijuana for most of the year, as long as they stop in time to pass one test.