When people think of marijuana they tend to think of stereotypes that have been assigned to the plant and its users; lazy, drowsy, unintelligent, or in simpler terms a pot head. However, I bet you don’t think of professional athletes who smoke marijuana having those characteristics.

Whether the sport is football, basketball, baseball, or any other professional or Olympic sport, athletes do use medicinal marijuana. Perhaps those negative connotations that are tied to marijuana prevent people from viewing athletes that way, but athletes are people too, and all they want is help without getting addicted to a harmful painkiller.

A poll was conducted by ESPN earlier this month. They asked about 31 percent of all starting NFL players, 226 players total, questions about medical marijuana in the NFL. They asked these players if they have known a teammate who used medical marijuana before games, and 22 percent of them said “yes.” That is 10 percent of the 226 players who participated, a surprising amount of real players admitting to knowing other players using marijuana before a game.

Players can get away with this easier than one would expect. According to NFL drug test policy, players who aren’t under suspicion of illegal performance enhancing drugs only get tested once a year. The players are told when that date will be, and they plan accordingly. It’s one thing to expect people to use drugs, but knowing how NFL players can get away with it is another.

It’s also clear NFL players not only agree on the overall benefits of marijuana but 71percent want it legalized in all 50 states. Wherever these players stand on the drug is irrelevant because the point of players using marijuana is to assist in easing pain without having to worry about harmful effects from addiction. People can be addicted to marijuana but due to thousands of studies and evidence supporting the health benefits of marijuana, it isn’t as life threatening as being addicted to painkillers.

A devastating 58 percent of players have known a teammate in their careers to be addicted to painkillers. That means that about 131 players know a teammate to be addicted, and that is 131 to many. While that might not seem like too many players out of the thousands listed in the NFL yearly, these are only a handful of players who were selected. Imagine if it was the entire NFL, or crossing over into other sports like the NBA, MLB, NHL, or even the NCAA.

With any painkiller there are harmful consequences to taking it, and with so many already addicted, this could be a chance for athletic organizations to give players a healthier option. When people are addicted to painkillers they begin to form a dependence on the drug, and without it they go through heavy withdrawals. These withdrawals can give them extreme headaches, flu like symptoms, and not being able to step away from the drug or wanting more after building up a tolerance. While people can also build a tolerance to marijuana, players would still be able to obtain the pain relief without the high.

There are way too many people who suffer from these painkiller addictions, and while the NFL, or any other sporting organization, should not advocate marijuana, it is important that players get better options for their own health. This is a serious problem that real people face, and they should be able to have a choice of is used for their body.