Clifford Robinson is best known as a super sub for some very good Trail Blazers teams in the early 1990s.
The word “blazer” will soon take on an additional meaning when referring to the 1993 NBA Sixth Man of the Year.
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Robinson, now a cannabis advocate who goes by the nickname "Uncle Spliffy," says it's logical to assume that a large number of NBA players use the drug due to the grind of the season.
"When you talk about guys playing on a professional level, there's a lot of physical and mental stress that comes with that," Robinson told the Portland Business Journal," and to have something available to you that has health benefits, I don't see the issue with it myself."
Robinson played with five teams in the NBA from 1989-2007, spending eight of those seasons with the Trail Blazers. He was disciplined by the league in 2006 for failing a marijuana test. He said the drug calmed his stomach and nerves.
“When I did it, it was wrong. I paid the penalty," Robinson told KOIN-TV in Portland. "But now we’re in a new time and we’re trying to move forward."
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Robinson will be speaking in front of the Cannabis Collaborative Conference in Portland next month and also is planning to open a marijuana growth operation in Oregon, where recreational marijuana use is legal.
"Cannabis is definitely a more positive alternative to pharmaceuticals at the end of the day," he said. "Those are synthetics. I'm talking about something that's natural that can bring the outcomes you're looking for, be it for muscle tension or relaxation or preparedness. There are a whole lot of different things that are beneficial."