cannabisnews.com: Baseball Drug Policy Not Specific Enough





Baseball Drug Policy Not Specific Enough
Posted by FoM on March 03, 2000 at 13:15:00 PT
By Dave Anderson, Sports of The Times
Source: New York Times
Even before Darryl Strawberry checked into a rehabilitation clinic in Florida to "take control of my drug addiction once and for all," he provoked two reactions. Sympathy for the slugger, scorn for the system. If Major League Baseball's drug policy were as stern and as specific as that of the National Basketball Association, the National Football League and the National Hockey League, the nearly 38-year-old Strawberry would probably not have lingered as a repeat offender whose presence in a Yankee uniform annoyed at least as many people as it touched. 
In reacting to the reduction of John Rocker's suspension and fine, Commissioner Bud Selig criticized the arbitrator's disregard for the "player's position as a role model to children." But with its soft-as-Straw drug policy, M.L.B. is disregarding the player's position as a role model. The drug policies of the other three sports list specific punishments for repeat offenders. But the M.L.B. policy, as defined in a six-page memo in 1997 from Selig, then the chairman of the executive council as the interim commissioner, warns vaguely that a "second and any subsequent violation will result in immediate discipline." Immediate perhaps, but too variable, often too lenient. In the other three sports, it's one-two-three strikes and you're out. In baseball, ironically, it's not. When Lawrence Taylor knew his next positive test would result in an automatic one-year suspension by the N.F.L., the Giants linebacker told Coach Bill Parcells not to worry, that he wanted to play too much to risk another positive test. Strawberry never had that guillotine hanging above his career until now, when it's probably too late. If Strawberry had been subject to the current N.B.A., N.F.L. or N.H.L. policies with his five documented substance-abuse episodes, he would have been disciplined more firmly, more quickly and perhaps more effectively. When Strawberry voluntarily entered the Smithers Center in New York for alcohol-abuse rehabilitation in 1990 while with the Mets, he would automatically have entered the first stage of the substance-abuse policy in the other three sports, with their variety of mandatory testing procedures as well as their variety of penalties for ensuing violations. Under the N.B.A. policy, when Strawberry, then with the Dodgers, voluntarily went to the Betty Ford Center in 1994 with a cocaine problem, he would have been suspended for a minimum of six months without pay; under the current N.F.L. policy, he would have been fined the equivalent of four games' pay; under the N.H.L. policy, he would have been suspended without pay during his treatment there before being eligible for reinstatement. But as a baseball player, Strawberry was put on the disabled list with pay, not fined or suspended. Under the N.B.A. policy, when Strawberry tested positive for cocaine again in 1995, he would have been suspended with the right to reapply for reinstatement after two years, as Micheal Ray Richardson, Roy Tarpley and Stanley Roberts have been. Richardson went to Italy and, despite being cleared to play in the N.B.A., is still playing there. Under the N.F.L. policy, Strawberry's positive test in 1995 would have resulted in his being suspended with the right to reapply for reinstatement after one year. Nearly a dozen N.F.L. players, notably Dexter Manley and Leon Lett, have incurred such a suspension. Manley, a feared pass rusher with the Redskins, never reapplied for reinstatement. Lett, the Cowboys' defensive tackle, was reinstated during last season after a year's absence. Under the N.H.L. policy, Strawberry's positive test in 1995 would have resulted in his suspension without pay for at least six months before being eligible for reinstatement. As a baseball player, Strawberry was suspended for only 60 days for that 1995 positive test; that June he joined the Yankees. Under N.H.L. policy, after Strawberry's no-contest plea to cocaine possession last April, he would have been suspended without pay for at least six months before being eligible for reinstatement. As a baseball player, he was suspended for 120 days last year; his ban was later reduced by a week and he rejoined the Yankees on Sept. 1. Under N.H.L. policy, with his recent positive test for cocaine, Strawberry would have been suspended without pay for at least one year without any assurance of reinstatement. But as a baseball player, Darryl Strawberry has finally been suspended for one year, but several years too late. Published: March 3, 2000Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company Related Articles on the NBA Drug Testing Issue:NBA's Grass is Greenerhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread3377.shtmlNBA Resumes Drug Testing After Six-Day Hiatus http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3354.shtmlThe N.B.A.'s Drug Program Is Nothing a Masqueradehttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3501.shtml http://www.alltheweb.com/cgi-bin/asearch?type=all&query=cannabisnews+NBA
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #2 posted by Jacqui Larkins on September 02, 2001 at 16:40:40 PT:
cannibas
I LOVE CANNIBAS
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by FoM on March 05, 2000 at 11:52:36 PT
The Face of Drug Use
The Face of Drug UseMarch 5, 2000New York Timeshttp://www.nytimes.com/By Rick Nusblatt, The writer is a project administrator at the Lindesmith Center, a drug policy group. http://www.lindesmith.org/To the Editor: Ever since the news of Darryl Strawberry's suspension from baseball because of drug use, I've been touched by the pleas for compassion among his fans, teammates, Yankee management and New Yorkers everywhere (editorial, March 1). What bothers me is that when you substitute Strawberry for the faceless drug user, the public becomes far less forgiving. When the addict is seen as a real person, only then does compassion enter into the equation. This is how it should be. For Strawberry, and for the hundreds of thousands incarcerated for drug use, many serving terms for the exact offense as Strawberry's, we need to see drug addiction as a health issue and not as a criminal issue. RICK NUSBLATTNew York, March 2, 2000Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company 
[ Post Comment ]

Post Comment


Name: Optional Password: 
E-Mail: 
Subject: 
Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message]
Link URL: 
Link Title: