*MARIJUANA* SOME MEDICINAL?*

Avery Collins: professional athlete and cannabis enthusiasts

THE ULTRAMARATHONER Avery Collins, among the fastest in the world, is not only about appearing in photographs including a bong.

The first time he tried running after using marijuana , he said, he realized ''it allowed me to be very present and not to worry as much about overall times and what's going on with the run.''

Mr. Collins, a 25-year old from Colorado Springs, is one of a likely legion of athletes who use marijuana as part of their training - although he's one of the few fast enough to get an endorsement deal from an edible company.

While there are no statistics about how many runners smoke a bowl before hitting the trail, as Mr. Collins often does, marijuana is the second most widely used drug among athletes after alcohol, according to the American Journal on Addictions.

Runners say cannabis and cannabis products make their long runs more enjoyable. Many say that  pot helps them to recover from hard workouts and races faster.

''You have two different reasons potentially for using cannabinoids,'' said Marcel Bonn-Miller an adjunct professor of psychology in psychiatry at the  University of  Pennsylvania Perelman School of  Medicine at who also works with pharmaceutical companies and nonprofit groups doing cannabinoids research.

''One is to enhance your ability to train. The other is recovery oriented.''

On the federal level in America, the purchase of, possession or use of marijuana is illegal, considered in the same category as heroin, LSD  and ecstasy.

But attitudes about marijuana have been rapidly changing in recent years, with former stalwart opponents to legalization to like John A. Behner, the speaker of the House from 2011 to 2015, announcing on Twitter"

''My thinking in cannabis has evolved.''

Marijuana is legal at some level in 29 states plus the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico. Sixty one percent of Americans now say marijuana should be legalized, up from 31 percent in 2000, according to the Pew Research Center.

It was also not permitted for recreational use in the eyes of the World Anti-Doping Code issused by the United States Anti-Doping Agency, International Olympic Committee.

In 2013, the organization raised the threshold limit of the cannabis metabolite carboxy-THC that could be found in an athletes urine from 15 nanograms per milliliter to 150.

The Honor and Serving of the latest Global Operational Research on Drugs and Life continues to Part 2. !WOW! thanks author and researcher Jen A. Miller.