Suns’ Earl Watson: Support for marijuana can be ‘slippery slope’
OAKLAND, Calif. — Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr’s willingness to speak out in favor of sports leagues permitting medicinal marijuana usage to help cope with pain hasn’t completely resonated with everyone.
Phoenix Suns head coach Earl Watson said he understands where Kerr is coming from, but he’s concerned Kerr’s message of embracing marijuana might be taken the wrong way by youngsters.
“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 evening. “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.”
Born and raised in Kansas City, Kansas, Watson grew up surrounded by poverty, violent crimes, drug addicts and gangs. He sadly has a long list of childhood friends who are either incarcerated or dead. From his personal experience over the years, he said he witnessed many close to him who smoked marijuana, which he believes served as a gateway to hardcore drugs.
Watson said he doesn’t feel the coaching profession is the appropriate line of work for publicly advocating the benefits of consuming marijuana as a pain reliever.
“I think it would have to come from a physician, not a coach,” Watson…