Does weed even count? I live in Canada, weed is like coffee on the West Coast here. Actually, more people probably smoke weed in my area than drink coffee. But there is no way it improves your playing. I have heard of people using beta blockers, but would never try it myself. Just good old BC BUD, and a few beers and I'm set.
Pro Players and Drugs
- Thread starter Mr441
- Start date
I remember watching golf on TV a couple of years ago and hearing them talk about how quite a few players were taking beta-blockers to calm their nerves. Nick Price was one named. I guess they had no policy about it and he was up front about it. I don't know if anything has changed since.
MrLucky said:Anyone who says or thinks drugs are a help is sadly either on them or a fool!
Really?
What about drinking a cola while playing late at night? What about Jeanette using Ibuprofin to enable her to continually be able to bend over the table? What about OHB using black beauties to drive better/safer? What about ol' Joe using high blood pressure meds to survive, and therefore play? What about...?
Don't these help? I can think of dozens of reason and ways that drugs help people do what people do, including playing pool.
Again, what is a drug? Is it an illegal one only...or is it a legal drug? Why is one drug helpful and another not? Who should chose? Who draws the line? Should there be a line?
Do I own my body?
Jeff Livingston
Here is my input...take it as you may.
As many of you know, I am a wheelchair poolplayer. I played in a tourney of nothing but other wheelchair pool players back in 1995. I would say 90%+ were parapalegic or quadrapalegic players. As a result, they were using muscle relaxers such as valium or whatever quite regularly. They are prescribed them legally for muscle spasms. Now nearly all of them at this particular tournament were doing them...and it was quite annoying. Here I was, drug free and shooting at a normal pace...playing against these guys who seemed half asleep and going SUPER slow. I would damn near get bored between shots. Some of them even slurred words they moved so slow. During the tournament, they openly took pills between matches and I felt it was totally unfair. I played well for about four or five hours and then I am just got bored. These guys seem to move like turtles, eyes half shut and never seemed to miss. I really am not comfortable shooting in tournaments with these guys under the influence. I have also played able bodied guys that wreaked of pot. They seem to have a great focus...but I have learned that if I am gambling with them, to take my time and go slow...their goodies have got to run out.
Shorty
As many of you know, I am a wheelchair poolplayer. I played in a tourney of nothing but other wheelchair pool players back in 1995. I would say 90%+ were parapalegic or quadrapalegic players. As a result, they were using muscle relaxers such as valium or whatever quite regularly. They are prescribed them legally for muscle spasms. Now nearly all of them at this particular tournament were doing them...and it was quite annoying. Here I was, drug free and shooting at a normal pace...playing against these guys who seemed half asleep and going SUPER slow. I would damn near get bored between shots. Some of them even slurred words they moved so slow. During the tournament, they openly took pills between matches and I felt it was totally unfair. I played well for about four or five hours and then I am just got bored. These guys seem to move like turtles, eyes half shut and never seemed to miss. I really am not comfortable shooting in tournaments with these guys under the influence. I have also played able bodied guys that wreaked of pot. They seem to have a great focus...but I have learned that if I am gambling with them, to take my time and go slow...their goodies have got to run out.
Shorty
chefjeff said:
In most sports the line is fairly clearly drawn at drugs that have a performance enhancing effect for most users of them, regardless of their medical condition. So Ibuprofen would not be illegal in most sports because it has not positive effect on performance for most users. Therefore it is legal for a small minority to use it for it's intended use of suppressing physical pain.
Betablockers are an example that can have a performance enhancing effect on almost anyone regardless of whether they are medically necessary and as a result have been banned even though this means discriminating against players with a genuine need for them.
Beyond this difference in drug types, the choices as to what is legal and what is not are made partly by the govening bodies of the sports, and partly by popular opinion. The recent hearings into Baseball drug use highlight this -In this instance the sport's own governing body have little desire to enforce strict rules but popular opinion is clearly against it, to the point where people are proposing striping players' of records and titles if they are found to have used steroids to achieve them.
As Pool has so little public exposure, and such a lack of organization at the Pro level (With the notable exception of the WBPA) there is little danger of rigourously enforcing drug usege rules any time soon.
chefjeff said:
Jeff,
Let me start off by saying that I respect your opinion in most cases and that I am not trying to dismiss your opinion in this case. However, the argument you are using doesn't hold water. You are correct that the things you mentioned could be considered drugs (some, such as food, need a lot of leeway) if you skew your thinking enough to include them. Nobody is talking about taking a Tylenol because your back hurts or drinking a cup of coffee. The discussion was about illegal narcotics, including things like prescription pain killers and such. There is a vast difference between drinking a cup of coffee and stuffing methamphetamine up your nose. There are differences in the way different drugs affect your reasoning and decision-making capabilities and in the way they affect your life and your health in general. Nobody has died, lost their house, lost their job, lost their spouse and children, been arrested and sent to prison, committed a violent crime or crashed a car because they were under the influence of a Tylenol. It has most assuredly happened many times because they were under the influence of narcotics or alcohol.
Yes, you own your body. If it's your desire to pollute it with illegal drugs, then by all means...do. Just please don't be fooled into thinking that it's somehow going to make you a better player. It's just not going to happen. What it will do is ultimately destroy you if you don't get smart and stop using it.
I've heard these same arguments about drugs for the past 40 years. Guess what? It's no more true now than it was 40 years ago. Coffee is NOT the same as amphetamines. Tylenol is not the same as crack cocaine. Yes, they are both drugs, but the effects on the human mind and body are completely different. I remember back in the '60's the common belief (even among the medical and Law Enforcement community) was that Cocaine was not physically addictive and was not a particularly dangerous drug. I don't think anyone is foolish enough to believe that nowadays.
drivermaker
Banned
CaptainJR said:
You were taking Inderol...they're one and the same. propranolol is the generic
And you didn't get whacked out either, did you? But it DOES work. There were some accusations going on at the PGA tour a few years back about certain golfers taking beta-blockers to calm their nerves while putting to lessen the flinches, jerks, and yips, since it involves the small muscles of the hands. However, certain guys did come forward and say that they were using them but they DID in fact have high blood pressure that required treatment and their physician felt beta-blockers would be best in their case.
The side benefit did occur I guess because Nick Price was winning everything back in the 90's and putting lights out on the greens. He came forth and said that he had high BP and HAD to take them, which was true. So, what do you do? You can't blame him nor his condition nor his treatment.
GeraldG said:
Gerald,
So have I. One was in his late forties. The other was 26 and left behind a beautiful young wife and 2 little girls.
Physical versus Mental !
I honestly do not think anyone here is suggesting that a REQUIRED prescribed drug for a real ailment in any way makes the user a druggie or a person under the influence! it is the healthy normal folks that believe that a toke of smoke or some amphetamines or beta blockers will give them a edge (or as some allude take off the edge) in order to play a better game! I think that is really the issue, now if you are insinuating that because these drugs exist for those that neeed them they are fair game for those that don't!.........
drivermaker said:
I honestly do not think anyone here is suggesting that a REQUIRED prescribed drug for a real ailment in any way makes the user a druggie or a person under the influence! it is the healthy normal folks that believe that a toke of smoke or some amphetamines or beta blockers will give them a edge (or as some allude take off the edge) in order to play a better game! I think that is really the issue, now if you are insinuating that because these drugs exist for those that neeed them they are fair game for those that don't!.........
drivermaker
Banned
MrLucky said:I honestly do not think anyone here is suggesting that a REQUIRED prescribed drug for a real ailment in any way makes the user a druggie or a person under the influence! it is the healthy normal folks that believe that a toke of smoke or some amphetamines or beta blockers will give them a edge (or as some allude take off the edge) in order to play a better game! I think that is really the issue, now if you are insinuating that because these drugs exist for those that neeed them they are fair game for those that don't!.........
What I'm saying is you can go to any doctor and not have high BP but politely say, " Doc...on a regular basis I have to give group presentations in front of large numbers of people and my voice quivers, my knees knock, and I want to piss my pants from stage fright".
And do you know what that doctor will do? He will very calmly write out a prescription for Inderal - a beta-blocker, the same one used to treat high BP. And all of those stage fright symptoms will go bye-bye.
Is stage fright any better or worse than making it to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open? Is it an affliction that can be overcome? Is it being given to a perfectly normal healthy individual to begin with? You be the judge. However, your verdict doesn't count and doesn't matter, nor does mine. The doctor prescribing it supercedes yours...and they're out to help their patient as quickly as possible...not give speeches on drugs, yoga, self-hypnosis, or the power of positive thinking and self-talk. Drugs are available for a variety of reasons including nervousness and physical manifestations associated with it. If there's not a banned list of drugs within that sports ruling body and a way of testing, a person can do whatever they want.
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DaveK said:
Yes, as a matter of fact, there have been cases of automobile accidents, etc., because someone was taking (or abusing) codiene. However, Tylenol w/Codiene is not the same thing as regular Tylenol. As you pointed out, it is a narcotic. That still doesn't make a parallel between drinking coffee and snorting Meth by a long shot.
Prescription and OTC cold preparations can both have adverse effects. The fact is that if a drug causes a problem or can cause a problem, then some common sense has to be applied to the use of that drug. However, that's still not the subject of the thread. The subject of the thread is the use of narcotics to enhance pool playing. My opinion, FWIW, is that narcotic use is not going to improve anyone's game over the long haul.
or1pkt said:
HEY IDIOT, that's completely uncalled for. Why not keep the thread on things you know instead of throwing random garbage out that friends of mine might find very offensive.
I like how you use an annonymous name. Seems like you could use some testosterone pills yourself.
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GeraldG said:
According to the original post the thread is about pro's playing on drugs, not just the specific class of drugs collectively refered to as narcotics.
Dave, who agrees that narcotics and many other drugs would not improve real performance in the short or long term ...
OldHasBeen said:
While my personal experience with beer and pool is similar, however it seems that lager and snooker have been known to get along ....
http://www.globalsnookercentre.co.uk/files/Players/Global_Americas/Canada/pm_profile016.htm
Dave, who had an EE professor in the 70s who created one of the first 'video games' ever, just to test peoples reactions while consuming alcohol, and remembers the prof saying peoples reaction performance improved from BAC of 0% up to 0.02% or so, then dropped back to normal at about 0.04%, and fell off quite impressively as their alcohol level increased above ! I still plan to have a beer or two during my match tonight.
BillardBill
Registered
I usually drink a good beer or two before i play when im out. It relaxes me alot. And i like beer anyways.lol Now i dont condone drugs and i dont do other drugs just alcohol socially. I agree with what alot of you have said. I never and will never do illegal drugs. Didnt need them.