Beginning this week, junior Matt Smith will be writing a weekly column entitled “Matt’s Corner.” He will discuss a variety of sports topics, ranging from playoff predictions to his opinion on noteworthy sports events. He is a featured columnist on Bleacher Report.

One thought should have crossed D’Andre Kirkpatrick’s mind a week ago, before he decided to smoke a marijuana joint: is this a multi-million dollar joint?

Every year, a prominent NFL prospect slips on draft day due to drug possession or a positive drug test. Drug possession is not nearly as common as it is during the college football postseason, but this year’s draft has already seen two of its most prominent players, former North Alabama CB Janoris Jenkins and former Alabama CB Dre Kirkpatrick, arrested. Both were members of the SEC, a conference notorious for arrests, at some point in their careers.

In fact, several prominent draft prospects from the SEC alone have been busted for possession of marijuana or positive drug tests in the past few years alone.

This year’s draft saw Jenkins and Kirkpatrick go down. Last year’s draft had Georgia OLB Justin Houston and the 2010 draft had Florida TE Aaron Hernandez both get caught. 2009’s draft saw Florida WR Percy Harvin test positive as well.

Though some like Harvin still get drafted in the first round, others like Hernandez and Houston fall a couple of rounds. Harvin likely didn’t fall as far due to the perception that the marijuana was used to help ease migraines — he once had a migraine so violent that the entire Vikings team ended practice early. Still, there are better options than using drugs.

To put in perspective how much money a player can lose now because of drug charges, Houston was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in the third round of the 2011 NFL Draft and signed a four-year, $2.8 million contract. The team’s first round pick, Jonathan Baldwin, signed a four-year, $7.6 million contract.

Houston and others likely cost themselves millions and millions of dollars. And that price doesn’t even include the health risks.