Phoenix Suns head coach Earl Watson isn’t exactly on the same page as Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr when it comes to the medical marijuana discussion.
As most are likely aware by now, Kerr made headlines when he admitted he used cannabis a couple of times to help him cope with extreme chronic back pain. He also made it clear that, while the medicine did not agree with him personally, it is a much safer option than opiod drugs that are harmful to the body and can become incredibly addictive (more on that here).
When asked about his thoughts on the matter, Watson took a different approach, preaching caution.
“I think our rhetoric on it has to be very careful because you have a lot of kids where I’m from that’s reading this, and they think [marijuana use is] cool,” Watson told ESPN on Saturday after the Suns’ 138-109 loss to the Warriors. “It’s not cool. Where I’m from, you don’t get six fouls to foul out. You get three strikes. One strike leads to another. I’m just being honest with you, so you have to be very careful with your rhetoric.”
Watson, who watched many friends fall into drug abuse after first using marijuana, also said that any discussion on the topic of medicinal marijuana is the domain of physicians, rather than basketball coaches.
“So when we really talk about it and we open up that, I call it that slippery slope. We have to be very careful on the rhetoric and how we speak on it and how we express it and explain it to the youth.”
From this scribe’s point of view, both coaches make extremely valid points. Kerr has every right to feel strongly about the benefits of medicinal marijuana, which has become much more mainstream in recent years. Watson has every reason to see the discussion as a slippery slope that could lead some to perhaps an unintended conclusion.