NBA Removes Marijuana off the List of Prohibited Substances

NBA Removes Marijuana off the List of Prohibited Substances

09 July, 2023

New York, NY: The NBA Players Association and League executives have agreed to a collective bargaining agreement that removes cannabis from the list of prohibited substances.

The new agreement formalizes modifications made in 2020 that restricted the authority of league officials to randomly test players for cannabis use and to penalize those who tested positive.

However, league officials will no longer drug test players for prior cannabis exposure. Instead, NBA teams may report players suspected of having marijuana-related dependency concerns to the Medical Director for a required review.

The policy modifications are comparable to those made by Major League Baseball, which recently removed cannabis from its list of prohibited substances. Although the NFL and NHL no longer suspend players who test positive for marijuana use, they do conduct drug tests on a few of their players. Similar action was taken in June by a National Collegiate Athletic Association regulatory group, which “signaled its support for removing cannabis from the Association’s banned drug list and testing protocols.”

Players are now able to “participate in the promotion or endorsement of any brand, product, or service of an entity that produces or sells CBD Products, as long as the entity is not a marijuana company,” according to other marijuana-related provisions in the new NBA contract.

Other marijuana-specific changes in the new NBA agreement permit players for the first time to “participate in the promotion or endorsement of any brand, product, or service of an entity that produces or sells CBD Products, as long as the entity isn’t a marijuana company.”