For the third season in a row, the National Basketball Association (NBA) will reportedly not be randomly testing players for marijuana\u2014a policy that insiders expect could become permanent.<\/p>\n
Players can still be screened for probable cause during the 2022-2023 season, but sports journalist Ben Dowsett said league sources told him random testing for cannabis will continue to be suspended, as it was for the first time in the height of the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver signaled in late 2020 that the policy could eventually become codified<\/a> after the league initially suspended cannabis testing<\/a> when players competed in a quarantined \u201cbubble\u201d in Orlando earlier that year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe decided that, given all the things that were happening in society, given all the pressures and stress that players were under, that we didn\u2019t need to act as Big Brother right now,\u201d he said at the time. \u201cI think society\u2019s views around marijuana has changed to a certain extent.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather than mandate blanket tests, the commissioner said the league would be reaching out to players who show signs of problematic dependency, not those who are \u201cusing marijuana casually.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, Dowsett says after talking to his sources he expects \u201ca permanent removal of random marijuana testing to be a topic during upcoming [collective bargaining agreement] negotiations\u201d between the league and its players association.<\/p>\n This is the third straight season where the NBA and NBPA have agreed to suspend random marijuana testing \u2013 after it was first paused in the Disney bubble. <\/p>\n Expect a permanent removal of random marijuana testing to be a topic during upcoming CBA negotiations. https:\/\/t.co\/P44lUenkSP<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Ben Dowsett (@Ben_Dowsett) October 18, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The journalist was previously the first to report the extension of NBA\u2019s no-cannabis-testing policy<\/a> for the 2020-2021 season.<\/p>\n That was later extended again to the 2021-2022 season<\/a>.<\/p>\n Michele Roberts, a onetime head of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) who also joined the board of the major cannabis company Cresco Labs<\/a> in 2020, previously predicted that a formal change to codify the policy indefinitely could come soon, though that hasn\u2019t yet come to fruition.<\/p>\n While NBA won\u2019t be subjecting players to random drug testing for THC, they will continue to test \u201cfor cause\u201d cases where players have histories of substance use, for example.<\/p>\n Last year, it was announced that the online marijuana marketplace Weedmaps is teaming up with NBA star Kevin Durant<\/a>\u00a0for a multi-year partnership that\u2019s aimed at destigmatizing cannabis and showcasing the plant\u2019s potential value for \u201cathlete wellness and recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n This latest action from NBA comes on the heels of a national discussion about cannabis testing policies for athletes\u2014an issue that made international headlines last year following the suspension of U.S. runner Sha\u2019Carri Richardson<\/a>\u00a0from participating in the Olympics over a positive THC test.<\/p>\n The runner said that she\u2019d feel \u201cblessed and proud\u201d if the attention her case raised would\u00a0affect a policy change for other athletes<\/a>. Even the White House and President Joe Biden himself weighed in on the case, suggesting that there\u2019s a question about\u00a0whether the marijuana ban should \u201cremain the rules.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n However, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) recently decided to\u00a0keep marijuana on the list of banned substances<\/a>\u00a0for international athletes following a scientific review and a determination that cannabis use \u201cviolates the spirit of sport.\u201d<\/p>\n MLB, one of the most progressive professional sports leagues when it comes to cannabis policy, recently signed a CBD company to serve as the league\u2019s first-ever cannabis sponsor<\/a>\u2014with plans to promote the business at the upcoming World Series.<\/p>\n The decision came about four months after it was reported that MLB started allowing baseball teams in the league to sell sponsorships to cannabis companies<\/a>\u00a0that market CBD products, as long as they meet certain criteria.<\/p>\n MLB has stood out among other professional sports leagues as more willing to respond to the changing marijuana policy landscape. For example, it clarified in a memo in 2020 that\u00a0players will not be punished for using cannabis<\/a>\u00a0while they aren\u2019t working, but they can\u2019t be personally sponsored by a marijuana company or hold investments in the industry.<\/p>\n The league also said at the time that it was teaming with NSF International to analyze and certify legal, contaminant-free CBD products in order to allow teams to store them on club premises. It\u2019s unclear if this latest development is directly related to that collaboration.<\/p>\n The update built upon MLB\u2019s decision in 2019 to\u00a0remove cannabis from the league\u2019s list of banned substances<\/a>. Before that rule change, players who tested positive for THC were referred to mandatory treatment, and failure to comply carried a fine of up to $35,000. That penalty is now gone.<\/p>\n A number of athletic governance bodies have recently relaxed rules around cannabinoids as laws change and medical applications become more widely accepted.<\/p>\n UFC announced last year that they would no longer be punishing fighters over positive marijuana tests, MMA Fighting\u00a0reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s opportunity across sports,\u201d UFC SVP\/Global Partnerships Paul Asencio told SBJ. \u201cI don\u2019t think every team will have a ([CBD] partner, but probably every league will. It\u2019s just a really good connection and marketing platform, because professional athletes are using these products and will continue to.\u201d<\/p>\n Separately, students athletes that are part of the NCAA would no longer automatically lose their eligibility to play following a positive marijuana test\u00a0under rules that are were recommended<\/a>\u00a0by a key committee earlier this year.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the NFL\u2019s\u00a0drug testing policy already changed demonstrably<\/a>\u00a0in 2020 as part of a collective bargaining agreement.<\/p>\n NFL players no longer face the possibility of being suspended from games over positive tests for any drug\u2014not just marijuana\u2014under a collective bargaining agreement. Instead, they will face a fine. The threshold for what constitutes a positive THC test was also increased under the deal.<\/p>\n Marijuana icon Snoop Dogg, who was featured at the Super Bowl halftime show this year where an ad\u00a0separately aired that indirectly supported legalization<\/a>, argued that\u00a0sports leagues need to stop testing players for marijuana<\/a>\u00a0and allow to them to use it as an alternative to prescription opioids.<\/p>\n Oklahoma Announces Special Election For Marijuana Legalization Initiative In March 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post NBA Won\u2019t Test Players For Marijuana For Third Season In A Row, Report Says<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
For the third season in a row, the National Basketball Association (NBA) will reportedly not be randomly testing players for marijuana\u2014a policy that insiders expect could become permanent. Players can still be screened for probable cause during the 2022-2023 season, but sports journalist Ben Dowsett said league sources told himContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[99,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57614"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57615,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57614\/revisions\/57615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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