The freeways surrounding MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. are about to be plastered with five billboards advocating the use of marijuana, and, in some cases, attacking football just miles from the game’s biggest stage.
Washington and Colorado are the only two states to have legalized marijuana, so theMarijuana Policy Project, an organization based in Washington D.C., decided this year’s Super Bowl between the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos would be an opportune time to get their message out.
This isn’t the first time MPP has tried to steal the NFL’s stage. The group posted a billboard outside of Denver’s Sports Authority Field at Mile High Stadium in September telling the league to “Stop Driving Players to Drink,” and, as a football leaned against a foaming beer glass advised: “A safer choice is now legal here.”
Tvert is in New York City this week and says he is heading to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s office Wednesday to drop off a petition calling on the NFL to stop punishing players for using marijuana. He said that, as of Monday afternoon, the petition has over 12,000 signatures.
“It’s simply that people want the freedom to be stoned,” he said. “That’s all it is. And there’s a great deal of risk.”
“In my 37 years as a physician, the number of patients I’ve admitted to the hospital with complications from marijuana use is zero,” he said. “The number I’ve admitted due to alcohol use is profound.”
As far as using marijuana for medical reasons, last week Goodell didn’t waver from his message about use in the NFL.
“I’m not a medical expert,” he said. “We will obviously follow signs. We will follow medicine and if they determine this could be a proper usage in any context, we will consider that. Our medical experts are not saying that right now.”
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Via USA Today