WHERE THERE'S SMOKE

Mark Stepnoski wants to see reefer madness end in the sports world.

Since retiring, Stepnoski has made little secret of his regular marijuana
use during a 13-year NFL career that included two Super Bowl titles and
five Pro Bowl appearances with the Dallas Cowboys. He viewed marijuana as
an alternative to painkillers and a way to wind down. He knew other players
who used it, too, though he says he has "no idea" of what percentage may do
so leaguewide. Today he serves on the advisory board of the National
Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws.

He knows that Dolphins running back Ricky Williams is facing a league fine
of at least $650,000 for testing positive for a second time. He also knows
that the punishment for the personal use of marijuana amounts to as little
as a $100 fine in many states.

"Even though people who smoke marijuana in America are a minority, it's a
fairly large minority -- tens of millions of people, " Stepnoski said from
his home in Vancouver. "I wonder why athletes should be punished so harshly
for doing something that while it's not commonplace, it's not incredibly
rare, either."

Not everyone sees it the same way. The problem is not that the NFL is too
harsh, but that pro sports generally need to stop blowing smoke and get
tougher on what is, after all, an illegal drug, said William S. Jacobs, an
assistant professor at the University of Florida who researches drug abuse.

"I believe the players in that situation have to be held to a different
standard, just as we hold physicians and pilots to a different standard,"
Jacobs said. "It's not a big safety issue if they're impaired, but athletes
are not McDonald's employees, either. Few kids look at a McDonald's
employee and say I want to be like him. They certainly look at Ricky
Williams and say I want to be like him."

For years, marijuana use in sports has been treated largely as a joke, with
claims of widespread use and denials as hard to pin down as a cloud of smoke.

Olympic snowboarder Ross Rebagliati of Canada insisted he picked up
secondhand smoke at a party before a positive drug test. His gold medal was
stripped and reinstated at the Nagano Games six years ago amid confusion
about testing agreements. "Next time I'll wear a gas mask," he said.

In the NBA, "you got guys out there playing high every night," former
All-Star Charles Oakley said in 1998. "You got 60 percent of your league on
marijuana. What can you do?"

Tug McGraw, the late relief pitcher, saw humor through all the haze. Asked
if he preferred grass over Astroturf, McGraw replied: "I don't know -- I
never smoked Astroturf."

For Williams, there is not so much to laugh about. He is appealing the
possible surrender of four game paychecks after The Post reported last week
that a second positive marijuana test found him barely over the limit last
year.

Williams declined to discuss the case at last week's off-season training
camp but said people "can judge for themselves" about his character: "They
just have to look at the way I carry myself, look at the way I play the
game, look at the way I practice and what I do in the community."

Williams' teammate, defensive tackle Larry Chester, has problems with a
drug policy whose punishment distinguishes little between the use of
marijuana or other illegal substances, like cocaine.

"They try to set the bar so that no matter what (substance), it's serious,"
he said. "The league says everything is bad."

Stepnoski also disagrees with league policy, but he does not give Williams
a free pass for failing to follow the rules that are in place.

"I never flunked a drug test," Stepnoski said. "No marijuana infractions.
I'm not one of those people supporting Ricky no matter what. I think you
should do what you have to do within the system."

A player who wants to avoid a positive result can stop using marijuana
several weeks before a three-month pre-season testing window. NFL players
who come up clean are not tested again until the next year.

Dolphins safety Sammy Knight said the NFL's strict drug policy forces
athletes to adhere to what Jacobs wants -- higher standards.

"Do they call you on vacation and tell you to meet them somewhere for a
drug test?" Knight said. "Of course the rules are different for athletes."

Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League do not routinely test
for marijuana. All the leagues allow testing "for cause" - if, for example,
an athlete has been arrested for possession -- or if a player voluntarily
comes forward to enter a treatment program.

Pressure To Test

Under pressure from congressional leaders and drug-policy officials, the
NBA began testing for marijuana in 1999. Commissioner David Stern said at
the time that cocaine had historically been a bigger problem for the
league. "Marijuana is something society has struggled with and, in some
jurisdictions, decriminalized," Stern said. "For us, there was the more
important issue of the epidemic of crack and cocaine sweeping the country.
If, in fact, marijuana is a problem in society, sports has the opportunity
to lead rather than to hide."

The NBA began testing veteran players once a year, and players knew it
would be in October, if not the exact day.

"Yet they would still get 10 or 20 players who would test positive," Jacobs
said. "That speaks of a problem with guys who couldn't stop long enough not
to get caught."

NBA spokesman Tim Frank said he could not discuss the number of players
annually who test positive. The estimate of 10-15 players is based on media
accounts that the league was not confirmed, but it would represent 3-4
percent of NBA players. That is below Oakley's 60 percent estimate, but
still a significant number considering players know testing is coming.
Officials with the league's players' association declined to speak for the
record.

Heat guard Bimbo Coles believes "about 2 percent" of the players use
marijuana. "I don't see it as a huge problem in the NBA," said Coles, a
14-year veteran. "I think if you looked around the percentages are probably
no different than they are in society as a whole."

Teammate Samaki Walker agrees.

"I think most guys take their bodies seriously and they take their game
seriously and when you have something like marijuana, something that's been
proven to do damage to your body, I think guys stay away from it," Walker said.

In the NBA, a first positive test for marijuana requires entering a
treatment program, with no fine or suspension. A second test brings a
$15,000 fine. Suspensions can follow a third positive test. Sacramento's
Chris Webber received a five-game suspension for an unspecified violation
of the league's drug policy this spring. Webber was arrested twice on
marijuana charges in 1998.

Teams can take their own action in the case of players who are arrested.
Portland guard Damon Stoudamire was detained on marijuana charges after
allegedly trying to pass through a Tucson, Ariz., airport metal detector
with more than an ounce of the drug wrapped in aluminum foil. The Trail
Blazers suspended Stoudamire and fined him $250,000 last year.

A first positive test in the NFL requires a player to enter a treatment
program, which allows up to 10 random tests per month. A second positive
test brings a fine equal to four games' pay, which Williams is facing now.
A third means an unpaid four-game suspension.

An NFL spokesman said it is not accurate to say the league puts a
"recreational" drug, marijuana, on par with a performance enhancer such as
steroids. A first offense for steroids brings an automatic four-game
suspension, the spokesman noted, while the first positive test for
marijuana involves treatment but no automatic fine or suspension.

Several famous athletes have been arrested for marijuana possession, from
former Bills and Dolphins running back Thurman Thomas to NBA career scoring
leader Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

What's The Use?

Why do athletes use, anyway? For the same reasons as other people - for
kicks, or in the hope of relieving pain, stress or depression, said Eric
Zehr, vice president of addiction and behavioral services at the Illinois
Institute for Addiction Recovery in Peoria.

"We work with professional athletes, whether it's football, basketball,
racing or what have you," he said. "Typically, athletes we have treated
have not been by and large any different from executives or anyone else
we've treated."

Alcohol is probably the most common addiction for athletes treated at the
institute, followed by narcotic painkillers, and marijuana follows
somewhere after those, he said.

Williams has talked publicly about his social anxiety disorder, for which
he has taken prescription medicine. It is not uncommon for athletes to seek
stress relief by using marijuana. At the same time, emergency room doctors
say they also see cases of panic attacks induced by marijuana, which can
bring on a sense of paranoia in some users.

Medical experts have sometimes disagreed as to how addictive marijuana is,
but Zehr said he does consider the drug addictive, both physically and
psychologically. Some players may say they only use marijuana off the field
or court, but what they may not realize is how long the active ingredient
in marijuana, THC, can stay in the body, Zehr said.

"It gets stored in the fat and released," Zehr said. "It varies by the
person and by the amount of body fat, but someone may be under the
influence and not even realize it for up to 30 days."

Studies with pilots have shown impairment on flight simulators 20 hours
after marijuana use, even though the subjects believed the effects were
completely gone in four hours, Jacobs said. The drug can affect short-term
memory, motor control and balance, he said. The act of inhaling smoke
carries heart and lung dangers of its own.

Stepnoski responded, "You can find all kinds of medical evidence that it's
less harmful than alcohol or tobacco. To me that's the case in a nutshell."

The fact that marijuana is illegal is "an arbitrary judgment not based on
science or medicine. It's an arbitrary political judgment," Stepnoski said.

But in view of those like Jacobs, leagues and players should take a tougher
stand -- if not for their own players, then for the millions of young fans
who watch them.

"I would like the players' associations to step up and be responsible and
assume a leadership role in this country and provide the kinds of role
models I would want my kids to be like -- not role models that encourage
kids to do things that are illegal and dangerous for their health," Jacobs
said.