NBA Lifts Marijuana Ban, Ends Random Player Testing

The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association have agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement that reverses the ban on marijuana and ends random player testing for the drug. This means that NBA players will no longer be prohibited from using marijuana under the new agreement.

The ban on marijuana was lifted this summer and will last through the 2029-30 season if neither side opts out by the end of the 2028-29 season.

The Athletic reporter Shams Charania was the first to report the agreement by Twitter on April 1^st.

During the pandemic in 2020, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver eased back on enforcing the policy. Silver told NBC Today that, “We decided that, given all the things that were happening in society, given all the pressures and stress that players were under, we didn’t need to act as Big Brother right now.”

The finalized agreement is forthcoming, pending “ratification by players and team governors,” the NBPA said, adding that, “specific details will be made available once a term sheet is finalized.”

Interestingly, while the NBA appears to be moving forward on cannabis, U.S. Track and Field is stubbornly standing still.

Star long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall was stripped of the USA Track and Field indoor title she won in February 2023 after testing positive for THC. The 23-year-old was given a one-month suspension, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency announced on April 28th.

While Davis-Woodhall faced a 3 month suspension, “the period of ineligibility was reduced to one month because her use of cannabis occurred out-of-competition and was unrelated to sport performance, and because she successfully completed a substance of abuse treatment program regarding her use of cannabis,” the USADA said.