The stress of both pro and college sports is probably more than we can imagine. Sadly many athletes not only in the past, but more in the present have fallen victim to substance abuse. We have seen all types of drugs used and abused over the years, Now it is 2016 and laws are changing and many are no longer seeing marijuana as a bad drug. Ex-Pro athlete says drugs like marijuana are used for medical purposes. It helps players cope with frequent injuries, as well as offset the brutality of the game. NBA All-Star, Blake Griffin, has also agreed that medical marijuana might be better to treat pain than prescription painkillers. In 2009, a study was done by ESPN, many NFL players have misused opioids during their career, which led to long-term addiction. Since opioids are so similar to heroin it is not rare for those addicted to opioids move on to a heroin addiction. Studies with marijuana shown that it helps with pain, but does not hold the same risk of addiction unlike opioids. With states in America passing laws when it comes to marijuana, sports have not been the same. Every year we watch athletes in different sports violate substance abuse regulations because of failed drug tests, and more times than not it is because of Marijuana. We get upset with these players for throwing away millions of dollars, and for some their career, all because they could not disconnect themselves with marijuana. Why do we not ever think about the leagues? With all of the studies that have been done, why would they not consider using medicinal marijuana over opioids? The side effects that marijuana has may be why they will not accept it in major league sports, things like memory loss and concentration impairment, just to name a few. As you can see just those few things are extremely important when it comes to playing sports, with these things lacking the potential for a serious injury is at an all time high. We have seen many of our favorite athletes fall victim to substance abuse. We saw Olympic Gold medalist swimmer, Michael Phelps, fall victim to substance abuse in 2009, which caused him to lose endorsements. Andre Agassi, the legendary tennis player failed a drug test which he later came out and admitted he was using crystal meth among other drugs. Former NFL Running Back, Ricky Williams, left the game mostly because his connection with marijuana outweighed his love for the game. Then there was the great Len Bias, presumed to be the best thing to happen to basketball. Many say if he would of made it to the NBA that he might have put Michael Jordan in the dust as the best player. Sadly, after being drafted by the Boston Celtics he died from a cocaine overdose two days later. With all of these great falling victim to substance abuse it really makes you think how great the sports we love to watch could have been without these drugs. Athletes have become so creative when it comes to hiding drug use when it comes to taking urine analysis. According to the study done by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, they have shown the players have gone as far as inserting catheter into their penises and filling their bladder with drug-free urine. Some have worn a special holding bag full of clean urine and attached it to a prosthetic penis. Some will also pour whiskey into the urine sample to mask illegal drugs (Drugs 2009). What a lot of people do not know is that many leagues and schools will let an athlete fail once or even twice before actions are taken against them. Makes a person wonder how many times athletes actually could have failed or actually did fail between their secret ways of passing and the failed test that were just swept under the rug. It seems like every other week we hear of athletes being suspended because of substance abuse of drugs. I believe the biggest athlete that has fallen victim of this as of late was former Texas A&M quarterback, Johnny “Football” Manziel. Many believe drugs were playing a major factor in his decline, and might potentially take his life. Drugs might of put Manziel’s career on hold, but if he wants to see what his life can become all he has to do is take a look at Lamar Odom, former NBA All-Star, who did not only lose his career but the ones he loved as well. I can almost promise you a lot of OJ Simpson's issues past and present stemmed from a lot of drug abuse and you can say alcohol as well. Even though the athletes may think the drugs are helping them, it is not in the long run. If we are talking about marijuana it reduces your lung capacity, which we know how important that is to an athlete.When we begin to talk about cocaine and heroin it slows down your breathing and narrows your airways, doesn’t sound like anything good. Doctors have reported that cocaine can also raise your heart rate extremely high and put undue stress on your heart, which can lead to heart attacks and abnormal heart rhythm. Marijuana can slow down your motor activity, while drugs like cocaine, speed it up so you are much more likely to have an injury. There are so many different downfalls to using drugs it is ridiculous, I could name many more defaults with them when it comes to being an athlete. For the most part we see that even though athletes may use it for that short term to release stress, in the long run it can mess up your sports career as well as your general life. Drug abuse has not only been found in the major and college ranks, but in high school ranks as well. It is worse if these young athletes get caught. Their career will be over before it starts. Even worse, they can be kicked out of school. If you do not think this is happening it is. I have first hand witnessed kids with the most talent, who looked like they would go on to be recruited at top players end up getting busted either doing drugs or having it in their possession. It is far from worth it, throwing away such a bright future, it is truly and utterly sad. We clearly see that drugs and athletes have many different views depending on who you ask. For the most part we can definitely see that drugs in the long run are not in the athlete's best interest. More research might have to be done on drugs like marijuana to maybe one day replace opioids. Even opioids like painkillers have their downfalls, but they are what is accepted to take in this day and age. Drugs and athletes has been an issue since the beginning and even though the test have got way better to detect drugs, sadly the number of athletes we see failing these drug test have not decreased over the years but exactly the opposite.