DEA makes surprise inspections on NFL teams

I was responding to cran, who said there needs to be oversight over what players take because teams have incentives to try to convince players to stay on the field. Let's say the DEA has found nothing. ... and the doctors prescribing pain killers to football players are doing it legally (not likely, but could be). ... I thought that cran was saying that there still should be some authority other than the players, given authority over what they take. Was I wrong about that?

We had gotten a bit away from what the DEA is doing -- enforcing laws that may or may not be being violated with regard to prescribing certain drugs that someone put on a controlled substances list. If what the doctors and trainers are doing is somehow not kosher given the rules created for those controlled substances, and you simply believe, "Well they are violating the law and the law is the law," you'll get no argument from me. They should know the law regarding that stuff and if they are choosing to disobey them, they should know there might be a consequence.

I personally don't agree with the law, though -- at least how restrictive it is. I personally find the way that put some drugs (but selectively not others, actually) on a controlled substance list and nanny people over them to be wrong. In this case, they are guys who can earn a decent paycheck -- if they load themselves up with pain killers in order to be able to play with is a really physically demanding sport. The choice should be theirs, in my opinion. They are capable of asking questions, investigating side effects, how addictive they are, etc. and making an individual decision. I personally don't see why they shouldn't have that freedom.

 

Yup. The home team doctor (if he is licensed in the home team state) can prescribe schedule II drugs in those states -- opioids like percocet or oxycodone. But in a lot of states (is it all?), if you are doctor licensed in another state, you can prescribe and dispense medications -- EXCEPT those drugs that were put on a list as Schedule II by the Controlled Substances Act. I agree that it is a picayune enforcement action, if that is what the DEA is after. But I'd go a step beyond and say that we shouldn't be regulating those drugs that way in the first place. These are drugs that have medical uses. But because they can be addictive, they have put in place nanny restrictions that are trying to protect people from themselves. I just don't agree that that is what our laws should be doing.

 

cran, of course the interests of the team and the interests of the players might not align. But you just said something about coercion, and I assume you don't mean the players being forced to pop pills with a gun to their heads. The players aren't idiots. They can ask questions. They can do a cost-benefit analysis for themselves based on the answers they get -- and whether they believe them. The nature of football is, if you can't get it done, you risk getting cut in favor of someone who can. That isn't a coercive notion. It's reality. So yeah, that should enter into the decisions of players about whether to get shot up or take pain killers. The players have a choice -- some of them may not like the options inherent in that choice, but that is the way life is. I think the teams and the players should be left alone to deal with the reality of pro football, and given that reality, the players should be free to make individual choices for themselves about what to take or not take

dq, The team doctor gets paid by the team, as you said. You can't assume anyone's idea of their "ethical obligations" doesn't begin and end with that. I have known a couple of NFL team doctors -- the ones I knew wanted the perks that come with it. You get to brag. You get free advertising. That affiliation does more for a reputation than any worries about what people might think about how they treat the players. People aren't aware and they don't care. Most fans, if they even thought about it, want the players shot up and popping pills to stay on the field as much as the team does.

The real "safety valve," as you put it, shouldn't be some third party, whether it is a doctor (who may or may not have good judgment) or someone who cran feels comfortable with dictating what someone else can and can't do. It should be the players making choices for themselves. The NFLPA has surveyed its players and found that none of them trust the team doctors. I know former NFL players who have verified for me that is how most players think. So the reality is that they all know already that the teams don't necessarily have their longer-term health interests at heart. From there. ... they need to make choices.