While the former center violated the league’s drug policy multiple times for smoking marijuana, Sanders wants to make it clear why he was done with basketball before the age of 30. “I could feel the effects it [marijuana] was having on my body, on my sleep and pain in comparison to the pills I was given” said Sanders in an interview with CBS Local’s DJ Sixsmith. “As a scientist, I knew what helped and what worked. It always came down to legalities. I felt like I was in the pre-historic age where we were still in this discovery mode. It sucks that people are still suffering when there are solutions out there that are deemed illegal because of some stigma.”