Seantrel Henderson suspended 10 games for violating substance abuse policy, but his use of marijuana is justified by illness
The NFL has to readjust their view and take a look at the policy on substance abuse because sometimes a doctors prescription is to help and not break the law. That is the case for Buffalo Bills Offensive Lineman Seantrel Henderson who will have to serve a ten game suspension for violating the league's policy on substance abuse. Henderson has played in one game after serving a four game suspension to begin the season for the same violation.
Henderson's case is a bit different because of health issues that he found out in the middle of the 2015 season. He says that he uses marijuana for Crohn's disease, a disease which can cause abdominal pain. Henderson says he deals with it on a daily basis. The Buffalo News reported Nov. 24 that Henderson could be facing a second suspension. The Bills announced the punishment; as is customary, how precisely the player violated the substance-abuse policy went unspecified.
Henderson was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in 2015
The Bills lineman underwent surgery earlier in the year to remove some intestines that were affected by the disease, so he was prescribed marijuana to deal with pain. He could not use painkillers.
He talked to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle earlier this month about being unable to use a bathroom during that time:
[Henderson] was inactive the final five games, and in January he had about 2 1/2 feet of toxic sections of his small and large intestines removed in surgery. For nearly four months he had to wear an ileostomy bag that was attached through a hole near his waist, and every hour the bag had to be emptied, meaning Henderson was never able to get a good night’s sleep.
“I was depressed, I was down, I was insecure about myself,” he recalled. “I had the bag, not being able to use the bathroom for three or four months. I couldn’t do anything I wanted to do, I lost all that weight, I was very unhealthy. I had no appetite like it used to be, so it really had my mind not all the way together. After I had the second surgery, and I started getting back into working out and things like that, things started being on the up and up for me.”
Seantrel Henderson is one suspension away from being banned from the league for good, so his best course of action may be to take legal action against the NFL.
