Report: UGA’s Justin Houston tested positive for marijuana
Justin Houston at the combine. (AP photo)
Citing NFL sources, FoxSports is reporting that Georgia linebacker Justin Houston tested positive for marijuana at the combine in February. Given that the draft is two days away, such news could have broken at no worse time — for Houston, if not for the teams that might have been interested in him.
Such news could also have an impact on the local NFL team’s first choice. It’s widely believed the Falcons are in need of a defensive end, and there’s thought that Houston could be as effective as a down lineman in a 4-3 as at outside linebacker in a 3-4. (Houston played in both spots under both alignments at Georgia.) But the Falcons under Dimitroff have made it a practice to minimize draft risks.
Drafting Justin Houston just got riskier. I can’t see the Falcons picking him now, at least not in Round 1, and I’d be surprised if he’s taken by any team before Round 2. Which would be a shame. He’s a big-time talent with a huge upside. (Sorry to lapse into draftspeak.) All NFL teams cast a critical eye on the draft — this is, after all, their business — and at the moment every franchise has to look at Houston and wonder: “How many guys put themselves in position to flunk their audition?”
This doesn’t mean Houston won’t get drafted somewhere by somebody. This doesn’t mean he can’t become a productive professional for the next 10 days. But it does mean he’s not going to make the money as a rookie he could have.
By Mark Bradley
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368 comments Add your comment
aprilglaspie
April 27th, 2011
10:40 am
Most drug testing labs employed by sports organizations are incompetent, sloppy and unable to back their findings with any sort of authority. False positives are more common with many labs than accurate readings. If I were Houston’s agent, I’d attack the lab. Anyway, marijuana clearly neither enhances nor affects adversely any athletic performance. This is Roger Goodell and the NFL invading player’s privacy rights, admittedly, with participation, and injecting themselves into what is, where pot is concerned, a social and political issue.
The glee that bubbles just underneath the surface at AJC when it publishes a stupid story like this is both obvious and obscene. Did Houston ever fail to perform at gametime? How ’bout the story of Ryan Mallett at the bowl game passed out with companions at the bowl game?
danny
April 27th, 2011
10:43 am
You can’t cure ……..
CobbHawk
April 27th, 2011
10:45 am
Another victim of the moronic War on Drugs. Pot should be legalized. All you knuckleheads who think it causes brain damage and cancer have no idea what you’re talking about. No medical studies have shown it to be any more harmful than alcohol; in fact, it is very much less harmful than alcohol in every way, and yet it is classified as a Class 1 drug by the federal government. Any review of the history of the prohibition of marijuana will quickly reveal to anyone willing to look beyond the government propaganda: the only reason it is illegal was due to racism against the Mexican immigrants who began to come to America in greater numbers in the early 20th century, and who used it in their home country in large numbers. It was an easy excuse for law enforcement to harass, arrest, and deport these immigrants. Of course, its later use in black communities and popularization by black jazz musicians only made it that much easier to use as an excuse to harass black citizens as well. The racism continues to this day. White people who get busted for pot suffer much less from the judicial system than blacks or Hispanics – of course this is mostly due to the fact that white people in general can afford better lawyers who plead down marijuana convictions or get them tossed or expunged.
It has no effect on how an individual will perform their job (unless of course someone is actually using it on the job – but then that is also the case with the completely legal drug alcohol). I’ve known doctors and lawyers and any number of other professionals in various fields who partake of marijuana recreationally, and they pay their bills, taxes, raise families, go to church, and are generally upstanding citizens.
It is the greatest folly that this kid, who is an exceptional athlete, should be so terribly penalized for something so minor and insignificant as to be on the wrong side of the stupidest, most ignorant, most wasteful, and most ineffective prohibition movement the world has ever seen.
Legalize it, and lets use the billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars the government confiscates from you and me to buy police departments better weapons than the US Infantry uses (and yet never seems to stem the flow of illegal drugs, nor make any of us any safer), and put that back into the economy.
Mel
April 27th, 2011
10:53 am
I’d say the amount of alcohol some of these players consume is far more dangerous and destructive than a little bit of pot.
milcon2
April 27th, 2011
11:16 am
Saw a prominent mock draft where my Lions picked Houston up in the 4th round. Sound good to me at 4. By the way all you who say big deal, he was only smoking pot. You are morons. He was pissing away millions of dollars that he will likely never make up and it will then make it more difficult for him to support his likely illegitimate kids, and defending his domestic abuse cases. He is a moron NFL level athlete and these morons repeatedly do these kinds of stupid things. Wake up idiots.
Matt
April 27th, 2011
11:21 am
I would guess 2/3 of the league smokes pot. Timing is the bigger issue. HOw can you be that stupid knowing that a drug test is coming??
JackP
April 27th, 2011
11:23 am
Stupid is what stupid does.
Matt
April 27th, 2011
11:27 am
CobbHawk- is it rich white folk who get off or just rich people in general????? I think Snoop Dogg (and any other rich black person) has gotten off just as much as the next rich white guy. Rules don’t see color of skin when money is involved.
SCJacket
April 27th, 2011
11:30 am
And the parade of high character student atheletes from UGA just continues to make the faithful proud. I guess he was surprised there would be a grug test at the combine? I hope you Dawg lovers are proud of yet another fine moment in the media with your program.
Dawgdreamer
April 27th, 2011
12:48 pm
Just a reason to convince him the team that drafts him are intitiled to pay him less. I doubt this guy is going the Quincy Carter route. It does however give you some insight into his character. What a bonehead move. For Peat’s sake if you are going to smoke, make sure you refrain from doing it in enough time that you can flush your system before the combine. Who manages these guys? His agent/handler should be fired. It just goes to show you that everyone involved in the process is looking to profit and exploit the athelete (including the athlete). In the end it comes down to personal accountability. I hope that high was worth 10 million dollars! Get real and get high on life man. I can’t imagine why this guy thinks he needs to smoke weed to get high. With all the experiences that he has lived and will get to live. Who couldn’t get high on that? Coming out early doesn’t look like such a great decision now, does it? Go Dawgs!
For the Falcons, a Round 1 defensive end only makes sense | Mark Bradley
April 27th, 2011
1:40 pm
[...] if Adrian Clayborn, the Iowa defensive end, is there when they pick. (In light of revelations that Justin Houston, the Georgia linebacker, tested positive for marijuana, it would be a surprise if they chose him.) As much as Dimitroff might try to drive down [...]
It Ain't Rocket Science
April 27th, 2011
2:59 pm
Every member of the SEC is required to test the players for Drugs. I suspect that every member of the SEC has at least one person smoking the weed. The players don’t get tested weekly, or even monthly for the most part, so it is easy enough to avoid a postive result. Coaches try their best to curb it, but let’s face it, they can’t be around their players 24/7. It is called responsibility and some of these players have either not been taught it, or feel they are above the law because they are an athelete. To blame CMR for Houston’s lack of judgement is just plain stupid. A coach likme CMR, who truely cares for his kids and tries to run a clean program, is just as susceptible to having a kid do something stupid as any other coach. He is not a member of the UGA football program any longer, and if you want to stretch your beliefs just a little, who is to say, this was not the first time he ever tried it, and he didn’t think it took 30 days to clear his system. This is just as plausable as blaming CMR for the actions of a former player.
Inspirational DVDs .com
April 27th, 2011
3:00 pm
[...] Report: UGA’s Justin Houston tested positive for marijuana – Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog)Citing NFL sources, FoxSports is reporting that Georgia linebacker Justin Houston tested positive for marijuana at the combine in February. Given that the draft is two days away, such news could have broken at no worse time — for Houston, if not for the [...]
Flatwoods Dawg
April 27th, 2011
3:14 pm
DUDES!!!! Chill out and smoke a tater while listening to some classic Cheech and Chong. That’s old school.
Hilton Head Island
April 27th, 2011
3:15 pm
Go Jackets !
jsknow
April 27th, 2011
7:56 pm
So many people are so quick to call others stupid for not bowing to the tyranny of marijuana prohibition. Would you be happier living under a communist dictatorship? Oh, wait a minute, the USA has more people in jail than any other Nation of planet earth, so much for that, “Land of the FREE, Home of the BRAVE” fable!
I’ll probably catch a lot of flack from the brainwashed know nothings that are far to brain dead to take a stand against anything uncle SHAM / SCAM doesn’t give them permission to reject but just FYI, 15 States and Washington DC have bucked the Feds and now allow medical use of marijuana. That’s because it’s proven SAFE and EFFECTIVE at treating a wide variety of ailments both severe and mild. Marijuana has also been shown to PREVENT many ailments.
How any rational freedom loving American can be a sheep to marijuana propaganda LIES and TYRANNY is beyond me!
Ok the kid broke an unjust law, he broke it more than once, maybe he had a good reason! Maybe this God given plant helps him in some way. The point is, if WE THE PEOPLE continue to accept tyranny and unjust laws, even when there is vastly overwhelming PROOF that there is NOT EVEN ONE just reason for this unjust law to exist, this same unnecessary, unconstitutional, wasteful, harm is going to continue to ruin the lives of many more otherwise law abiding citizens, which are doing NO harm to society, or even their self!
Marijuana certainly is not going away and for whatever reason, millions of people find something they like, need or some benefit from this plant. It has NEVER been proven to cause ANY serious harm whatsoever!
If you support this tyranny, please tell me why! Better yet, do some research and see if you still support this discrimination against allegedly free people after you learn how and why marijuana became illegal and why it has remained illegal. Once you know the truth, if you’re a freedom loving red blooded American, I bet you’ll have a hard time supporting marijuana prohibition and the astronomical harms it causes.
Please, someone, ANYONE, tell me by what virtue of righteousness, marijuana prohibition should be allowed to continue!
Oh, and please don’t say because “it’s illegal”, that’s such a sheepish response! Everything Adolf Hitler did was legal and everything MLK did was illegal. Legal doesn’t always mean right and illegal doesn’t always mean wrong, now does it?
jsknow
April 27th, 2011
8:11 pm
HERE HERE, CobbHawk, very well said!
Report: Houston failed drug test at combine
April 28th, 2011
2:17 pm
[...] weed story Report: UGA's Justin Houston tested positive for marijuana | Mark Bradley At least it was after he was gone from UGA. These guys sho is dumb Sorry if this is old news [...]