Jeffress at it again, suspended 100 games; Latest -- Agent Audio Link

[lithium75]

Our entire society has come a long ways from where it used to be, about Cannabis.

It still has a long ways to go. This story about Jeremy is an example. Of anything a person could do, weed is the least of anyone's worries. It was stupid of him to keep smoking and smoking, after he was suspended the first time, but this is rediculous. It was ridiculous the first time he was suspended.

How many unrepentant alcoholics have been allowed free reign in baseball? How many Goodens and Strawberries were coked up all the time and let loose?

This country disgusts me, throwing stoners in jail, for any reason; growing, transporting, possession. Cannabis should be the least of anyone's worries.

The Drug War is nothing but about growing the prison population, creating a police state based on no knock raids and militarized police, and worst of all, trying to foster complete ignorance and fear of something that is natural, safe, and wonderful.

Sorry to get political on everyone, but as I say, the War on Drugs is a War on YOU. And now Jeremy Jeffress is a victim amongst millions.

So a long time ago, I whole heartedly shared this opinion. Now I work in the medical profession and firmly believe that there shouldn't ever be a situation where a politician gets inbetween a doctor and his or her patient. If a doctor is taking care of a patient, and he or she believes that marijuana would be of some benefit to the patient, it's his or her license, they should be able to prescribe whatever they want.

But this opinion about marijuana being this wonderful harmless thing being wrongfully persicuted by the evil establishment is just plain goofy. I went to college. I have held my fair share of bongs and passed them to plenty of people who now hold down respectable high paying jobs. I understand that it is not a performance enhancer, but Jeffress should be suspended for all of the 100 games.

Think of it this way. Being naked is natural, safe, and (in at least some people's cases) wonderful. But I don't want to see any of the players playing naked. It isn't somethig I want to see, and would be a horrible influence on the kids. I also don't want to see a bunch of stoners play baseball. Look what happened to the NBA. Didn't Marcus Camby estimate that 75% of the league smoked weed regularily? How long has it been since the NBA put out a watchable product?

The 60's were the time of expiramentation. Where did that get us? Pot may or may not be legalized. I don't care. if it is, I don't want my kids doing it. The last thing I want is a 30 year old living in my basement playing playstation 20 all day eating Doritos. I don't want people who may end up being a role model for my kids smoking weed either.

Also, the kid is privilaged. Being a first round draft pick means (for the most part) that all he has to do is listen to his coaches, put in a little effort, stay relatively injury free, and he should make the majors. Staying drug free is part of the rules, though.

I work in a hospital. To keep my job, I need to stay drug free, too. I don't make anywhere near what Jeffress does, but I am STILL able to stay drug free. If this positive test is for marijuana, I can tell you that addiction has nothing to do with it. If it is pot again, the kid doesn't deserve the opportunity he has been blessed with. If he isn't smart enough, or in control of his life enough to not smoke pot in order to keep his incredibly high paying job that he has been blessed with the opportunity to have, he should be to work as a clerk in a gas station like most of the other stoners.

If it is something other than marijuana, then maybe you can use the "This kid is sick and needs help," arguement that his agent is already quoted as saying in the papers.

[Mass Haas]

1.55 million dollars (signing bonus) at age 18.

 

Is it any wonder why it's so easy to root for Mitch Stetter ($1,000 bonus out of Indiana State) or Mark DiFelice or Casry McGehee or even Corey Hart (11th round pick)?

[jackalope02ca]

I'm pretty sure I said after the first suspension we should have released him. Guess I was right. Once a cheat always a cheat. I work in a field were I see a lot of injured people and then have to deal with their addictions as part of their rehab and let me tell you very few and I mean very few ever kick them for long. I would hope the team just releases him now but I suspect the Brewers will have to waist a bunch more money on his rehab. I guarantee you this guy gets a lifetime ban. He's got his million and I doubt he cares about anything else. I hope the Brewers fire the guy that did the character test on this guy before drafting him.

[Never Outhustled]

Jeffress is really living up to those Dwight Gooden comparisons. The frustating thing is Gooden was addicted to an addictive substance, Jeffress is addicted to ruining his career on something useless. Jeffress has already been in the Brewers employee asistance program. I guess that didn't work.

 

At this point, the Brewers will need to consider assigning a personal babysitter to Jeffress, like Josh Hamilton has.

 

Also, upon his return, he should be developed as a relief pitcher, to expediate his arrival to the majors, so the Brewers can get some return on his investment. Scrap his 2-seamer and change-up, he won't need those out of the pen. If he sticks to his 4-seamer and curve he could develop quickly, assuming he can become eligible again. It thought this was simply an issue in his past, but clearly its part of who he is.

[Patrick425]

I'm not an expert on the addictive nature of pot, but what "The Crew" stated in post #19 of this thread is right on the money. Not "buying the addiction excuse" because he knew what he was risking doesn't make a whole lot of sense. That's why it's called an addiction. Going to rehab is not an automatic cure all. In fact, addictions can't be "cured", they can only be treated.

 

I'll also agree that I'm not sure why marijuana is treated differently than alcohol in this country.

[ClosetBrewerFan]

Wow! Any guesses on how far Jeffress will fall on the next P50? I'm guessing he'll drop at least 20 slots.

 

When is the next P50 coming out?

[Mass Haas]

Wow! Any guesses on how far Jeffress will fall on the next P50? I'm guessing he'll drop at least 20 slots.

 

When is the next P50 coming out?

 

Within the next 3-5 days, we're submitting and compiling our individual rankings as a staff this weekend. Your guess won't be far off, by the way...

[YoungGeezy]

I'm pretty sure I said after the first suspension we should have released him. Guess I was right. Once a cheat always a cheat. I work in a field were I see a lot of injured people and then have to deal with their addictions as part of their rehab and let me tell you very few and I mean very few ever kick them for long. I would hope the team just releases him now but I suspect the Brewers will have to waist a bunch more money on his rehab. I guarantee you this guy gets a lifetime ban. He's got his million and I doubt he cares about anything else. I hope the Brewers fire the guy that did the character test on this guy before drafting him.

You never release a 21 year old or younger who throws 100 mph with a nasty breaking ball over smoking weed. I could list about 29 teams that would claim him in a heart beat. The problem "could" be addiction but its real hard for me to say that because I know plenty of people who have very addictive personalities and when the time comes, if they know they need to take a test soon they can quit like that so.... I really think its him not thinking and being immature. Brewers have money invested into him and they should ride out the storm and really stick on him. If I'm them I'd test him every month, not for MLB to see or anything but to monitor him and let him know that it needs to stop. If you tell a stoner that he will randomly be tested and may not get tested at all in a season of course he's going to smoke if he knows that randomly every month he will be test he will have to get a lot smarter. Thats what he needs, not rehab in my opinion.

[TheCrew]

Mary Jane isn't an addictive drug. I don't buy those excuses for a nanosecond.

and you base this on what?

 

For the heck of it, I googled it just to see what they had to say on it - and in the year 2000 nearly 100,000 people sought out treatment for marijuana dependency. It's nearly 10 years later and it wouldn't surprise me if that number has gone WAY up with pot becoming more and more mainstream.

 

I thought this also summed it up pretty well:

from http://www.peele.net/faq/addictive.html

I never speak of marijuana as being not addictive, just as I never speak of heroin as being addictive. That's not how addiction works. People become addicted to a range of substances and involvements. The measure of addiction is the degree to which an involvement usurps people's life, and yet they cannot curtail the involvement.

[tyguy20204]

Yeah, just want to emphasize that pot can be incredibly addictive, psychologically. Also, we don't know yet if this second test was for pot use or something else. Often times pot users will be dabbling with other drugs as well.

[CheezWizHed]

Yeah, I'm not buying the "its not addictive" either. I searched for "is marijuana addictive" first 5 sites said yes (I gave up looking for a "no" at that point). http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/marijuana_myths_facts/myth2.pdf Yeah, I know its from the "evil establishment".

I think a poster at JSOnline summed it up perfectly:

Some can smoke pot every so often, or smoke pot alot but stop smoking a week before an important deadline, some can smoke a ton and quit with no craving again.

Personally, I wa4s the third kind of smoker-- spending 120 bucks a week on it... then, I looked at the 12 joints I had, smoked them all in a day, and on the following day i quit and haven't done it once in almost two years now.

The addiction isn't what kills... what kills tons of people I know is that it destroys your ambition and makes you content to settle for a life that's less than the kind of life you had once aspired to lead.

I'm guessing the Jeffress didn't smoke because he was demoted to A+, he was probably smoking at AA, leading to the demotion.

[PeaveyFury]

Whether the tests are right or wrong is irrelevant. Jeffress knew that by smoking grass, he risked losing his job. I can accept the first mistake, but the second time around is just plain stupidity.

 

I think this puts it very well, and this is why I could never get on board with the 'oh, it was just marijuana' responses from the first positive test- it suggests that he's either not willing or bright enough to prevent a positive test going forward.

 

Too bad Peavy and Bedard got hurt when they did, or Jeffress might have already been someone else's issue and had value to the Brewers.

[twobrewers]

Does that mean that if the Brewers added Jeffress to the 40-man, his suspension would be nullified?

It's kind of a tough read. My interpretation that is IF the Brewers called Jeffress up before he knew of his suspension - he would have just been fined.

the difference between the maximum penalty that could have been imposed under this Major League Program (had each of the Player's violations occurred while he was on a 40-man roster) and the number of games already served by the Player at the Minor League level.

This is the part I don't totally understand. The player would be suspended at the major league level "the number of games already served by the Player at the Minor League level."

 

If nothing else, if we can call him up - he could serve more of his suspension on the 40 man roster. (Seeing as the Brewers have a lot more games to play than Brevard County)

[igor67]

I agree with X's point that making him a reliever is the most logical thing to do at this point. I can't imagine even if he came back successfully as a starter he would have a lot of trade value ever again.

[ClosetBrewerFan]

Does that mean that if the Brewers added Jeffress to the 40-man, his suspension would be nullified?

Whether there is a loophole here or not, I don't think it matters. The Brewers would not do it. It would be a PR disaster and I'm Selig would pressure the Brewers to change their mind.

 

Also, Jeffress would not learn anything from this and would likely continue. The Brewers are not going to look for a way to let him go unpunished.

[WV Brew]

If you are one who thinks Jeremy has been treated unfairly, think about this: how would you like to go to the plate with your future depending on it, facing a 100 mph pitcher who may be stoned? I certainly wouldn't. This certainly helps explain the lack of control this year. I wish him the best but expect nothing from now on.

[kramnoj]

This certainly helps explain the lack of control this year.

 

I don't think it's that certain. As posted earlier, I think it's more likely that the use is the response to the struggles, not the cause of the struggles.

[lithium75]

Ok, you can google whatever you want to about the addictiveness of pot. I have a...umm...friend (yeah, a friend, that's it) who smoked pot every day his sophomore year of college. He also smoked cigarettes. One day, this person woke up and realized that he hadn't smoked weed in a couple of days. This revelation caused him to re-evaluate things. This person has never smoked weed again, and has never had a moment when he craved weed. Not even once. After 13 years of smoking cigarettes, and 5 separate attempts using different methods, this person quit smoking in February, (using the patch). To this day, he still has cravings for cigarrettes.

 

Basically he quit smoking weed almost as an afterthought. It took no effort, and he experienced no cravings. All it took was a decision to not smoke it any more. The same person said that quitting cigarettes was easily the single most difficult thing he has ever done. 2 days without a cigarette and he had trouble sleeping. 3 days and it was an almost unbearable compulsion to smoke. the patch only worked because it put enough nicotine into his system to dull the cravings to the tolerable level. Still agonizing, but tolerable enough to not smoke.

 

What I am saying is that a career as a professional baseball player should easily be enough motivation for someone to quit marijuana no matter how many web sites you can find that say it is addictive. I know from experience, (um, my friend's experience that is) that marijuana is not even remotely as difficult to quit than smoking cigarettes. If he is unwilling to stay sober long enough to become a major league pitcher and make millions of dollars, he shouldn't have that opportunity. If he is unwilling to put forth the small ammount of effort it takes to quit smoking weed, how much effort do you think he is going to be willing to put into learning how to throw his fastball for strikes? Or into learning how to throw a changeup?

[NastyTwig]

The only reason weed is a problem is because it's easily caught in a drug test weeks after you've actually done it, and there is no way to know if you've actually got it out of your system. Coke? Yep, that's gone in a day. Alcohol? You have to be caught while drunk. Without looking it up, I'm pretty sure meth and heroin are gone in a few days as well.

 

Hell. I'd rather have my players staying in their hotel room on road trips smoking weed, watching tv, and going to bed early rather than staying up til 3 partying in some big city.

 

Weed is a prison filler, that's all. The prison system is big business and what better inmates to have than a constant flow of non violent stoners? That's the real reason that it will never be legal. Too many rich white people don't want it to be.

[JJHardy7]

I do feel that right now some posts are going beyond the situation. I don't think we really need to discuss whether or not pot should be illegal...that's not really relevant to this situation. I hate to say it, but it is what it is. It's not like 75% of minor leaguers have been suspended for this. It's a rather small problem when it comes to the minors or at least in testing.

If you are one who thinks Jeremy has been treated unfairly, think about this: how would you like to go to the plate with your future depending on it, facing a 100 mph pitcher who may be stoned? I certainly wouldn't. This certainly helps explain the lack of control this year. I wish him the best but expect nothing from now on.

I don't think this is fair at all. There is zero evidence that he was high while pitching. I honestly think this thread is getting a bit out of control. There are posters stating their experiences and comparing that to JJ when we really don't know anything. That's not fair at all. It is fairly clear that almost anything and everything can become an addiction and it impacts people different ways. JJ could've smoked a few times or a lot...we don't know. He could do this on off days or he could do it right before games he's pitching in...but there's no evidence either way. I think we should quit the 'well this...or that....' and treat it like fact. I support JJ 100% and hope he can get this thing cleared up. The bashing on him is pretty sad since we don't know the facts...if he's smoking all the time before pitching and such...what about last year? Did they just not test him? To me, it's sad that so many here are purely speculating.

[logan82]

I have to say that I am disappointed that people can't accept the fact that other people might have addictive personalities. Just because some people can smoke pot every day for years and give it up doesn't mean anything. Just because marajuana doesn't have a physical addiction doesn't mean it can't be addictive to certain individuals.

[TuesdaysWithRillo]

So the autograph I obtained from him at Spring Training is now worth nothing. He promised me he was going to stay drug free, too. Liar. Lol.

[Invader3K]

I'd also point out that it's not even for sure if marijuana was the substance he actually tested positive for.

[yoshii8]

This really sucks, I hope Marijuana becomes legal sometime in the next 100 games. I really can't believe that anybody would get a lifetime ban for marijuana, alcohol is so much worse, and ruins so many peoples lives. It is really sad that when someone is an alcoholic there is no penalty, but marijuana gets treated equally w/ peds.

[AJhawk50]

I'd also point out that it's not even for sure if marijuana was the substance he actually tested positive for.

 

UPDATE: JEFFRESS' AGENT, JOSH KUSNICK, CONFIRMS JEFFRESS' SUSPENSION:

Reached by telephone, Jeffress' agent, Josh Kusnick (Agent39 here on BF.net) , reluctantly confirmed the positive test.

"I'm sure it's aleady getting around the ballpark in Brevard County," said Kusnick.

"All I'll say is it was not a performance-enhancing drug. We all know the issue Jeremy has had in the past.

"He obviously has a very sensitive issue he has to overcome. This is all about Jeremy now. This is a problem that goes beyond his career. It's more important to get the person fixed.

"Jeremy is destroyed by this. He knows what he did is wrong and is incredibly remorseful. We're hoping people support him during this difficult time."

Kusnick said plans are being put together to get Jeffress into a treatment program for his abuse problem.