The summer is winding down. Beaches are packed with mask less craves of normalcy while online live streaming concerts, aka,the new normal are lined up whoever is your favorite artist or whatever is your favorite genre of music. Yes, and what else says the new normal like NBA playoff games on Labor Day.
That’s right. Lebron James, AD, and the Lakers vs. James Harden, Westbrook, and the Rockets will air Tuesday night. It is still surreal for me to be watching basketball highlights in September. The Heat will play the Milwaukee Bucks if need be because as of now it looks like the series maybe a sweep.
While we are talking about the NBA on Labor Day less than a month ago Adam Silver, NBA commissioner, did an interview where he discussed the league’s stance on cannabis. Currently, the NBA is not testing players while in the NBA bubble. For those that do not know, the NBA has a protocol for entering and leaving the Disney World campus hosting the NBA playoffs. Players and immediate family that go through quarantine and test negative are allowed within the “bubble”.
As reported by the Chicago Tribune August 8th, 2020 Silver understands that NBA players’ use of marijuana in the off-season is a private matter apart from the NBA. Silver’s concerns were about consuming marijuana for pain relief vs. consuming marijuana for anxiety and to medicate for mental challenges. Silver shared that he has spoken to players that expressed “I smoke a lot of pot, because I have a lot of anxiety and I am struggling”.
That is a distinction I understand that is important for Silver as the NBA commissioner to learn and educate himself about. It is Labor Day weekend and many are enjoying 4:20 activities to relax, relate, and release having a day off from work. However, the NBA is a league dominated by young twenty year old’s. Silver’s concern is how the NBA may assist player’s dealing with expressed anxiety and struggles that may utilize or see cannabis as a coping mechanism only with no other options.
Cannabis has many benefits for health and wellness. I am not a proponent of smoke all day everyday as it is “Medicine”. There is no medicine that one has to take 24 hours a day all day every day; even with no side effects such a medicine would be less and less effective the more one consumes it. Personally, I can’t get more than a quarter of a strain one strain at a time as I tire of consistent use of one strain. Toke, 4:20 and enjoy times to relax and just chill this Labor Day. For those that use cannabis to release stress and deal with anxiety I understand and empathize with that process. In addition to 4:20 explore implementing anxiety and stress relieving activities and rituals as part of one’s daily life.
