Tag Archives: banned
Box Corner: Marijuana shouldn’t be banned in sports, but it can help performance
Last Friday, Seattle Seahawks defensive end Bruce Irvin was suspended by the NFL for a violation of their substance abuse policy, the sixth member of the squad to receive such punishment since 2010.
Since the NFL can’t disclose why, Irvin did as teammate Richard Sherman did before him: hint that the violation was for taking Adderall without disclosing it. While heavily prescribed, Adderall isn’t without risks, but it certainly can have it’s performance-enhancing advantages — same as any number of drugs that areallowed in sports. If the league is going are going to be hypocrites, then why not allow one of the best natural performance enhancers out there: marijuana?
With the World Anti-Doping Agency announcing they’re allowing more THC in your pee, it seems that using marijuana may be the best option for athletes around the world.
Pain
It’s the #1 reason people get their medical marijuana card in our nation, and no one knows pain like an NFL player who slams themselves into other giant men repeatedly for 16 weeks. I played flag football last week and am still walking like Mr. Burns.
What sounds better than getting in the hot tub after a game and puffing a joint? (Nothing.) There’s an absolute advantage to being able to take a big hit after taking a few big hits off your bong before the game — but it is any more or less than an Advil or Tylenol?
ADD and ADHD
If you guys really need all that Adderall, you may be better off skipping the ‘scripts and getting on some of Mother Nature’s own focus medication. A 2009 study done at USC shows that marijuana is great at controlling the symptoms of ADD and ADHD, and a corner back like Sherman benefits the more he can get “in the zone” on the field.
Personally, I play my best Madden high as a kite, much to the chagrin of the ‘tweens on Xbox live. Suck it, GomezFan1996!
Appetite Stimulation
Rookies coming into the league need all the help they can get stepping up from the college ranks. According to the New York Times, in 1970 there was one player in the NFL that weighed more than 300 pounds. Training camps in 2010 saw over 500.
If you want to pack on the pounds, pack a bowl and hit the Cheesecake Factory - a favorite among pros. Those looking to cut weight might benefit from THCV, one of the hottest cannabinoids out there due to it’s appetite suppressing properties. Yes, that’s a thing.
Alzheimer’s
If you were four times more likely to die from Alzheimer’s than the general population like some NFL players, you’d probably be looking into pot. Life after the NFL can be tough, so let’s embrace some preventative medicine and get these guys some MMJ which has been shown to reduce and stop degenerating nerves. It’s hard to feel bad for millionaires, but it’s harder to watch ex-athletes struggle with dementia, loss of motor skills, and then passing on before their time.
We argue a lot that marijuana is medicine. So maybe it’s time acknowledge that it actually does have some benefit in the world of sport, even if we’re only participating in a round of disc golf.
Box Johnson is a comedian, writer and cannabis geek living in Denver. Read more of his rants and raves in our Box Corner archives.
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“Slanderous” new calypso songs banned from Guyana’s airwaves
GEORGETOWN |
GEORGETOWN (Reuters) – Calypso lyrics decrying corruption and excess have so irked Guyana’s government that new songs from the popular Caribbean music genre have been banned from state airwaves.
Calypso music has long been a proud and central feature of life in Guyana, a laid-back former British colony of just 750,000 people on the northeast shoulder of South America.
But the politically spicy lyrics of some recent songs have been too much for the government. Staff at the government-run National Communications Network, or NCN, received a directive this week prohibiting the broadcast of new calypso songs.
Public Works Minister Robeson Benn was so angry at one tune on NCN radio that he drove down to the station himself “to find out what the hell was going on,” an official spokesman said.
“It was slanderous,” the minister said afterward. “I hold it as my right to go to the station to intervene in an activity which I think impacted me as a citizen and also as a minister.”
One of the calypsos that offended authorities blasts the government’s corruption record.
“With all de corruption dat taking place, we is de ones fe (they) blame, while dem a thief, thief, thief,” the song, which won a local competition, goes in the local creole language.
“Calypso lyrics are spicy,” said the piece’s singer, Lester Charles. “Either you laugh your head off or it get you real vex.”
President Donald Ramotar recognizes Guyana has a corruption problem but says its scale is exaggerated.
Six-time national calypso champion Geoffrey Phillips, who goes by the stage name of “The Mighty Rebel,” described the state media ban as “petty and disgusting.”
“Calypsos are the spirit and passion of the people,” he said. “If we are being forced to tone down, then calypso would lose its soul.”
(Writing by Girish Gupta, Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Peter Cooney)
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Banned Bosnia candidate proud of “porn” campaign
ZENICA, Bosnia |
ZENICA, Bosnia (Reuters) – A Bosnian man who was banned from running in next month’s local elections for using pornographic images on the Internet as part of his campaign says he will fight to be reinstated and get a chance to turn his town into “Hollywood”.
“Seven days after my campaign began, the whole planet is talking about me,” Mirad Hadziahmetovic told Reuters. “I think I have had a super campaign and proved to be the best market expert in Bosnia.”
The self-proclaimed “innovator” had been running as an independent candidate for mayor of Zenica, the fourth-largest city in Bosnia with a predominantly Muslim population, in the October 7 ballot.
The election commission removed him from the race last week over pornographic material accessible on his campaign web page.
After each question visitors to his web page posed about local election issues, they were allowed to proceed to links with pornographic content, which had to be removed after the commission’s decision.
Hadziahmetovic appealed against what he said was a “shameful decision” to Bosnia’s state court this week and voiced confidence that it would be overturned.
Unless he is re-instated as a candidate, he will file a suit to the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights, he said.
In an open letter asking for support from Western ambassadors in Bosnia, Hadziahmetovic said he only wanted to turn Zenica into a Hollywood instead of a Tehran.
“I know boys and girls in my country want to make love freely, have fun and enjoy life. They all dream of Hollywood, not Tehran,” he wrote, refering to Zenica’s current mayor, who comes from a Bosnian Muslim party with post-war links to Iran.
(Reporting By Miran Jelenek and Daria Sito-Sucic; editing by Zoran Radosavljevic, editing by Paul Casciato)
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Xbox Patent Ruling Could See Console Imports Banned
Microsoft may find itself banned from importing Xbox 360 consoles into the United States later this year if a judge’s ruling is upheld.
Motorola Mobility has won a ruling by U.S. International Trade Commission Judge David Shaw regarding several patents the company claims Microsoft is in violation of, Bloomberg reports. Microsoft had previously filed claims alleging Motorola was infringing on its own patents with the latter’s line of Android phones.
Banned Bulgarian soccer referee uses false identity (Reuters)
SOFIA (Reuters) – A banned Bulgarian referee took charge of this week’s friendly between Werder Bremen and AZ Alkmaar under a false identity, state television BNT reported on Friday.
BNT said Luchezar Yonov used the name of fellow countryman and eligible referee Raicho Raichev for Wednesday’s game played in the Turkish resort of Belek.
“This story convinces us the decision we took last year was right,” Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) refereeing commission chairman Kostadin Kostadinov told state television.
Yonov and his assistants Petar Tarulov and Emil Mitev were among the referees who were suspended in 2011 for officiating at international matches in South America without informing the BFU.
“I’ll take all necessary measures to clear my name,” Raichev told the Bulgarian football referees association’s website (www.bgreferee.org). “What they did is so sneaky.”
Bundesliga club Werder came back from a goal down to beat their Dutch opponents 2-1.
“I read some reports and they said there was 10 minutes of added time, a controversial penalty and a free kick in the ninth minute of added time,” said Kostadinov.
The referees association has urged the BFU to inform European soccer’s governing body UEFA about the incident.
(Reporting by Angel Krasimirov, editing by Tony Jimenez)
