Former NFL player Marvin Washington is one of five plaintiffs who are suing Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration in federal court to legalize marijuana, the New York Post reported Monday night.
NFL players “are fed opiates and pharmaceuticals throughout the week, from training camp until the end of season. That can be June to January. It’s not normal,” Washington told the New York Daily News in June. “I think the Players Association should demand that [players] have an alternative to opiates. This is scientific-based. This is not hocus pocus. That’s where I want to see this in the very near future, players that have an alternative to opiates.”
As delineated by the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 (CSA), substances such as marijuana, heroin and LSD are considered Schedule I drugs but drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine are considered less dangerous Schedule II drugs because, while also addictive and subject to abuse, they have accepted medical uses in the eyes of the federal government.
“The record makes clear that the CSA doesn’t make any rational sense and the federal government knows it,” attorney Michael Hiller, who represents Washington and the other plaintiffs in the lawsuit, told the New York Post.
Joining Washington as plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Alexis Bortell, an 11-year-old girl who needs medical marijuana to treat her epilepsy, and Jose Belen, a disabled military veteran who uses marijuana to treat his post traumatic stress syndrome.
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