Smoke Signals: As legalization of pot spreads, should NFL lift its ban?

Though many players use marijuana, commissioner Roger Goodell isn't ready to lift the NFL's ban.

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Opponents of decriminalization argue that cannabis hasn't been studied thoroughly enough to remove it from the Schedule I list. The decriminalization movement responds to that by shoving a sheaf of university studies across the table, including the eye-opening work of UC San Diego's Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, and noting that most other medicinal research has been stifled because of the Schedule I status. Two Sundays ago, as Goldstein spoke to a roomful of parents whose kids battle autism, seizure disorders or cancer (and the nausea that chemo brings with it), the NFL announced the first grant awards in the league's "Head Health Initiative -- a $60 million partnership aimed at jump-starting new research into the brain." To no one's surprise, medicinal cannabis researchers were not among the recipients.