Suns head coach Earl Watson expands on his comments regarding marijuana use

Phoenix Suns head coach Earl Watson responded Saturday to comments by Golden State head coach Steve Kerr that were in favor of allowing medicinal marijuana to help those in pain in sports, saying it’s a “slippery slope” to begin speaking of pot in that specific manner.

Watson expanded on his comments on the Doug and Wolf Show on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Tuesday.

“I understand I have a young roster,” Watson said. “I also understand I have a preschool in Kansas City and I have 27 youth travel teams in Los Angeles from fourth grade to 11th grade, so when those parents enroll into my school or those parents enroll into my program, they do not want to see the Phoenix Suns lead that young mind anywhere but straightforward.”

Watson offers a different perspective than Kerr, coming from the inner cities in Kansas City.

“Growing up in the inner city, seeing marijuana use, which to me is different depending on your social environment of economics, it is more than just a conversation,” Watson said. “My response was the rhetoric and the education of marijuana use has to come from a physician, someone who studied it. It can’t really be from us, because all I know is the negative effects of marijuana growing up.”

Kerr used the NFL and Vicodin as an example where marijuana would be a safer alternative. Watson’s past experiences living in the inner city, however, have a negative connotation surrounding the drug, and he would be concerned about the consequences in places like where he is from.

“Growing up in the inner city, seeing a kid smoke it, seeing a kid sell it, always led to another level of drug use or drug distribution and for most of those kids, I would say around 90 to 95 percent, if not 98 percent of those kids, ended up incarcerated, ended up dead before the age of 18.

“I grew up in life looking for signs or omens of what not to do and what to do, and that was a thing I saw that was a consistent path of these kids, thinking it was cool to use marijuana, to sell marijuana, that just always bothered me, so if it ever became legal, what would be the new law if you distribute it in the inner city or anywhere? If it ever became legal, what would the kids who used to sell marijuana begin to start selling to make money? It’s so much substance to the conversation and my opinion was really to be careful of our rhetoric when we speak on it.”

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