The NBA Has Lifted It’s Ban On Players Using Marijuana

The NBA Lifts Ban On Players Using Marijuana & They’ll No Longer Be Tested For The Drug

The National Basketball Association (#NBA) is reportedly removing marijuana from its list of banned substances and will no longer drug test players for it as part of a new seven-year collective bargaining agreement.

The move, first reported on Saturday by Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium, formally codifies what has been the league’s decision to temporarily suspend cannabis testing for the past three seasons.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver signaled in late 2020 that the policy could eventually become permanent after the league initially suspended cannabis testing when players competed in a quarantined “bubble” in Orlando at the start of the coronavirus pandemic earlier that year.

 

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“We decided that, given all the things that were happening in society, given all the pressures and stress that players were under, that we didn’t need to act as Big Brother right now,” he said at the time.

“I think society’s views around marijuana has changed to a certain extent.”

The league was founded in New York City on June 6, 1946, as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). It changed its name to the National Basketball Association on August 3, 1949, after merging with the competing National Basketball League (NBL). In 1976, the NBA and the American Basketball Association (ABA) merged, adding four franchises to the NBA.

The NBA’s regular season runs from October to April, with each team playing 82 games. The league’s playoff tournament extends into June. As of 2020, NBA players are the world’s best paid athletes by average annual salary per player.