You won’t believe these former professional athletes played stoned

It’s not exactly a human growth hormone, but who says if Mary Jane falls under the category of a performance enhancing drug? With the increasing legalization of marijuana, the sports leagues have slowly but surely softened their stance. That opened the floodgates for former professional athletes to share their experiences and describe how marijuana has improved their playing career.

Check out this list of former professional athletes who have played under the influence of pot.

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Matt Barnes, NBA, Sacramento Kings

By posting a podcast with Stephen Jackson called All the Smoke, it’s not hard to tell that Mr. Barnes knows his way through a bag of California’s Finest. He’s even put on record that some of his best accomplishments occurred while he was on “medication.”

Given his fiery personality on the court, the casual NBA fan probably wouldn’t call Barnes a stoner. The fact is, he’s been burning since he was 14 years old. His longstanding relationship with weed may have led him to fight for social justice in the cannabis industry in his current role as Senior Advisor to Eaze’s minority cannabis business.

Percy Harvin, NFL, Seattle Seahawks

Given the contact-making nature of professional football, it’s pretty easy to imagine the league’s best relaxation after a long day with a fat joint twisted to perfection. While this is the case for much of the league, ex-Seahawks wide-receiver Percy Harvin actually cited another reason for his habitual flare-up throughout his career. He recently claimed that smoking marijuana before the games actually helped suppress his anxiety.

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His fear peaked when he was traded from the Minnesota Vikings to the Seattle Seahawks in 2013. “There’s not a game I’ve played that I wasn’t high on,” he said. It’s not surprising when you consider that many users claim that it helps calm their nerves.

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Shaun Smith, NFL, Kansas City Chiefs

Unlike Percy Harvin, Shaun Smith, formerly with the Kansas City Chiefs, kept his pre-game ritual of smoking two blunts before each game because it helped him focus. Smith was such an ardent believer in the bud that he claims it made him feel unstoppable in the field. In an interview with Bleacher Report, he said, “It’s like I’m in the zone. I have a feeling that no one could stop me out there. It softened me, made me work and it’s best for me. “

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Later in the interview, he credited Gras for helping him relieve his pain before he dropped a bomb. He estimated that up to 80% of players in the league, along with other teams and coaching staff, use marijuana. With that in mind, it’s no wonder attitudes toward the pot are changing so quickly that was once known as the “No Fun League”.

Elijah Dukes, MLB, Washington Nationals

With the MLB historically the most tolerant of the three major sports leagues when it comes to weed, it’s only natural that their players take advantage of this fact from time to time. The former Washington Nats outfielder admitted to smoking pot before matches during his short three-year career in the big league. With a rather insignificant career average of .242, it’s hard to decipher the impact his efforts had on his performance in the field.

Nonetheless, his time with the big guys came to an abrupt, unspectacular end before the start of the 2010 MLB season. Unfortunately, he’s been making headlines for all the wrong reasons since retiring. Some of these headlines involve domestic issues that lead to legal ramifications.