There are two issues in this discussion (I think).
1. What Gregory did, why it is or isn't fair and how it relates to other players that missed or failed tests.
2. What the rules should be, not what they are now.
I think some people are referencing #2. It seems the rules and program could stand to be improved. I don't really know all of the day to day details surrounding it, but it does not seem to be setup to help players as much as it probably could be.
a. Going to rehab and following the rules should allow the suspended player to be considered for a reduced sentence.
b. When they are not in rehab, some program for the off-season should be available that would get them credit towards a reduced sentence. This program would could be setup to provide structure for players that have minimal structure in the off-season.
I realize that these guys should be considered grown arse men, but they are young guys that have a ton of structure during the season and during training camp, but then are suddenly on their own for the most part for several months of the year. Yes, I know they can go to team facilities to work out, but I think there is minimal structure involved with that for most of the off-season.
Maybe some of this already exists and I just don't know about it, but if not a super big money business like the NFL should be helping it's players to the fullest extent possible.
On a side note, the thing that sucks about drug testing is that the hard drugs are the ones that are least likely to show up on an drug test because they clear the system quickly; whereas, weed is the drug most likely to be detected.
From a personal perspective, I've only smoked weed once in the past 25 years; however, I'm in favor of it being legal everywhere. It irritates me to see some reality cop show where they are doing sting operations to arrest people for weed. The reason it irritates me is because of all the money being spent to catch them as well as the added burden on the jails and court system. We have to pay for all of that. The police spend tons of time and effort on this issue but when I have 20k worth of items stolen, they make a report and then forget about it. They basically tell you right then that they won't put much effort into catching the thieves. The cop laughs and says "It's not like a murder where we're going to go searching for video and put a lot of detective man hours into it. Hopefully you have insurance".
If it was legal, I might consider using it on occasion. When people obtain it illegally, they don't know where it came from. It could have something in it. I've known people that got some that had been sprayed with something toxic that made them sick. I'm not going to get into that, even if I didn't care about the legality issues.
Also, I think that when it is illegal it is indeed a gateway drug for many people. Once somebody has contacts to obtain it illegally, then that same network of dealers can get them anything else (Heroin, etc.). If it was legal, then the distribution system for legal weed would be completely separate from the illegal distribution network for hard drugs.
It is wacky that middle and high school kids can easily get drugs but can't drink alcohol. If I had a 16 old kid, I would prefer him to drink alcohol than to get into illegal drugs. I wouldn't be too worried about him smoking some weed except for the fact that if obtained illegally, then he is interfacing with people that can get him hard drugs.
If weed was legal, then the authorities could take all of the money they spend on sting operations to catch people with weed and instead go 10x on their focus on keeping hard drugs away from kids. It's not realistic in this country, but I would like to see a law where and adult caught selling drugs to kids would get the death penalty. That is not realistic unless you live in the Middle East, but making weed legal would make it easier to increase the penalties for selling illegal drugs.
Another positive from it being legal would be better information on it both good and bad. Right now there is a lot of rhetoric about how bad it is that is put out in an attempt to keep people (especially kids) away from it. I don't think a lot of it is accurate; whereas, the information available about the effects of alcohol is verified. They tell kids that smoking weed will stunt their mental growth. I would like to know if that is true, but at this point the information available seems to be biased depending on who provided it.
Wow, I didn't intend to ramble on, but there is a lot about this issue that bugs me.
Don't get me started on how traffic laws are outdated and ineffective.
non-truth your own way out of a pretense of discussion now...
