Maybe its just me, but I cant see how Ricky Williams smoking pot is at all relevant to my life or the game of football. Do people out there somehow rejoice in the knowledge that Ricky Williams is going to suffer the consequences if he smokes?

Marijuana may be a lot of things but a performance-enhancing substance it is not. Whether a professional athlete prefers the high of alcohol or marijuana in their off-time is in my view, irrelevant. I'd prefer it if NFL drug tests were focused on preventing cheating, and not preaching morality.

But maybe its just me. What do people think?

Its not that simple.
Marijuana is an illegal substance. If they are using it, it is a legal issue. To me, whether it be weed or any other illegal substance, it should be handled legally, not internally. So them fining them or forcing them to seek treatment is more than fair to me..in fact I don't think it is strict enough.

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I think they do the right thing. They have a simple policy, you fail the test, you suffer the consequences. Sorry, but I can't feel sorry for someone making millions of dollars just b/c they can't smoke a little reefer. If I smoked pot and failed a drug test at work, there is consequences as well, why should an NFL player be any different?

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Well the question isn't centered around how sympathetic you are to millionare football players. Its more about the nature of testing for substance abuse. The olypmic Gold-medalist snowboarder (oh wait, they took his gold) wasn't exactly a huge moneymaker but you can still feel that its unfair that he won the gold without cheating but lost it even so.

Ricky Williams was a solid NFL back in the prime of his career, and unless theres something we're not hearing yet he has never taken performance enhancing drugs or cheated once. Miami's fans suffered enormously because the NFL takes it upon itself to police a player's downtime. Your employer drug tests obviously, but you'd be amazed at how many jobs do not. Even key jobs in Washington DC never inquire or test people in positions like 'Legislative Director' etc. for sitting Senators.

The NFL isn't obligated by law to do what they do. Heck, look how hard it is to get the Baseball folks to test for blatant, rampant cheating.

But the NFL does, he knows this, he violated the rule, he gets punished. Don't see what the big deal is??? Smoking a joint in my downtime won't effect my performance, but it is in violation of my conduct agreement I agreed to for work. Same with Ricky. It was spelled out and agreed to by him when he signed the contract. He violated it, he gets punished, all seems fair to me.

Oh, did I mention that no matter how you personally feel about it, it is still ILLEGAL.

Wow really? Although the entire point of this thread is expressing how you feel about the issue, not the legality of it.

Sarcasm aside, gay marriage is also illegal. The argument that it simply "against the rules" or "against the law" doesn't immediately make it fair. Many people see gay marriage as a controversial issue and while some would argue the law is fair, it doesn't suffice to say it is fair BECAUSE it is law.

Pro-life people would not be convinced that abortion is morally justified because it is permitted by law. An anti-gun activist wouldn't be convinced of the error of his ways because guns are legal.

You asked what I think, I told you want I think. If you don't like it, well that's really a shame. The fact that he agreed to the rules of the league when he signed the contract is all that really matters if you ask me. It has NOTHING to do with what the rule is, and everything to do with the fact that he is in violation of it, and that violation has consequences.

The problem is, the fourth violation isn't for smoking pot. He's given that up. It's supposedly because a supplement he was taking contained amphetimenes, which isn't necessarily the same as meth. Most decongestants and OTC sleeping pills contain amphetimenes.

Hell, most soldiers would fail the test because they drink so much water. You'd think that after having a handful of guys drop dead from heat stroke because they were out of shape and didn't hydrate properly, the league wouldn't be so strict. However, just because drinking lots of water can be linked to flushing out THC from the system, it's an automatic fail to hydrate above "normal" levels, which in reality aren't anything near adequate.

The big problem I have with the NFL's drug test is that it doesn't give players the benefit of the doubt where there could be honest reasons for the fail; eating poppyseed bagels, taking decongestants, or hydrating to a level that mitigates the chances of heat stroke. In all those cases, it often takes no more than a visual examination or (in the case of pot) a folical test to indicate if there's been real substance abuse. My point is, piss tests aren't the final word in drug tests and I dislike how the league is treating them as if they are.

Yeah I was interested when I heard that he had tested positive for some mystery substance that they werent naming yet. Thanks for the Dolphins up to the minute info - very nice.

I wasn't even aware of the hydration issue, thats really taking it too far. I agree completely that folical testing would be a good way to avoid mistakes.

Speaking as one who spent many years smoking pot, I still feel that it is a much better vice for one to have than booze will ever be. No one has ever been killed by a speeding pot head, they drive too slow.

Now that you know where I stand on pot, this is the simple fact: If you know that your work place tests for drugs, then you cant take them, simple as that. I dont care which places do or dont test, in the NFL they test. If he fails, then he should get the punishment.

Again, with that being said, this last test failed for amphetamines, as dolfan pointed out, so this is a different thing altogether. There are so many over the counter drugs that could contain something of this nature that a piss test could never give a true result. If a follicle test has not been done, then there are so many normal substances that could cause this test to fail, that the result in my eyes is totally bogus. I once failed a drug test for morphine, and it wasnt until I had further tests done that it was revealed that it was because I ate poppyseed bagels that day.

If the league wants to test for drugs, that is their right, but if they are going to do it, then they have to make sure that their results are exact, and that they use the correct test to make certain they are right before they prosecute. In this case, I dont think it is this cut and dried and I am not sure they will be able to convict him of use in this instance.

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I am a correctional officer and I am also state certified to perform urinalysis. Lets clear up some issues. Drug test failures are not from consuming sesame seeds etc. Our test system is the same as the NFL's. A sample is collected and a test is perform (NIK test as an example). THIS test can be swayed by the amentioned things like seeds etc. If there is a failure the rest of the sample is sent to a lab where the exact nanograms of THC etc is determined. The nanograms determine CONSTANT USE. The state of Vermont uses >50 nanograms as its baseline for failure. I am sure that the NFL uses a lot lower baseline then that. You dont fail THC tests eating sesame seeds.

Let em edit this you cant fail nanogram testing eating seeds..

Well i appreciate that, but I did in fact fail a test for poppy seeds and further tests proved that I was right. That is not a fabrication, but truth that happened to me.

Taz, I think that's his point. You failed the original test, then the advanced test proved you to be correct (the advanced test he is talking about). I would be shocked if the NFL did not use the advanced testing upfront.

yeah Taz that is why i re-editted it, the first test can be swayed dirty by alot of things

As I found out the hard way.

to finish Millers point, the NIK test (first test) is a money saving option. If you have to test 1000 people it would be expensive to send 1000 urine samples to a lab for testing. On-the-spot NIK tests are alot cheaper so the only urine samples sent to the lab would be the ones that tested immediatelty as dirty.