The NBA has officially suspended random marijuana testing for the 2020/21 season, tweets Marc Stein of The New York Times.
Ben Dowsett first reported on Thursday that the league would continue to forgo those tests after scrapping them for the summer restart in Orlando. The NBA will only conduct “with cause” tests this season, sources tell Dowsett.
“Due to the unusual circumstances in conjunction with the pandemic, we have agreed with the NBPA to suspend random testing for marijuana for the 2020/21 season and focus our random testing program on performance-enhancing products and drugs of abuse,” league spokesperson Mike Bass said in a statement (Twitter link via Stein).
Although the coronavirus pandemic is being cited as the motivating factor for eliminating random marijuana tests in 2020/21, there’s no guarantee that the program will ever return in its previous form. As Dowsett writes in a feature for GQ.com, with the non-medical use of cannabis being decriminalized and legalized in more and more states, NBPA executive director Michele Roberts would like to see the testing program eventually removed from the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.
“I am absolutely confident (that) by next season – at the absolute latest by the time the next CBA is negotiated – this is going to be old news,” Roberts said of the NBA’s random marijuana testing.
Chronic Blunt Agreement lol let’s get this party started! 4.20
Smoke ’em if you got ’em….(and you know they got ’em) :)
Looks like the entire country is about to do the same ha ha
so the nba still care about some weed . when alot of states are making it legal . i dont get it. its not like weed makes you better. so i dont get the problem with it
Because it’s still federal law, that’s why.
It’s being suspended because the league knows that most of the players will fail a test, given that many have experienced a long period of downtime.
I mean do they ask players randomly if they’ve murdered a federal judge or transported illegal amounts of fruit across state lines? Those are federal law, too.
It’s weed. It’s not a performance enhancer. No one cares about it and it’s needless to test them for it.
There was a bill passed in the house today ending the prohibition of marijuana in America, if it passes the senate and is signed by a president then I feel this will be a dead issue by next CBA
Yeah the Senate won’t be passing that legislation, not as long as Mike Pence is still in DC.
Which will only be for another month…
You mean as long as Mitch McConnell is in the Senate. He’s potentially the biggest impediment to passing legislation in US history. Pence being VP has nothing to do with it.
Passing the joint around is not COVID friendly. I hope these guys remember their personal pipes and to smoke alone.
Neither is sharing needles
VERY few people take their marijuana via injection…
Um yeah, okay. Not remotely the same thing, but yes that is a bad idea too.
Hey Jerry Garcia when did I say they’re the same thing? Put the pipe down for a minute or three…if you aren’t too addicted.
Then why did you bother to make that unrelated comment?
Incidentally… One of the many differences between Jerry Garcia and myself is that I’m grateful…
It’s not unrelated for your information. The topic is drugs. You really are Jerry Garcia aren’t you? Why don’t you go free your mind if it isn’t already lost…hippie.
Your comment was pretty unrelated. You may as well have said ‘So is putting an aspirin in your mouth, then spitting it out and having someone else eat it’. It’s about drugs, but completely unrelated.
Lol that’s nasty
Also aspirin isn’t a drug it’s medicine so it’s not the same
The only difference between a drug and a medicine is the words in a law book. Otherwise, they are EXACTLY the same thing.
If that’s true then by your logic coffee is a drug. They don’t test players for coffee? What are you even talking about.
Caffeine is defined as a drug because it stimulates the central nervous system, causing increased alertness.
Man in theory medicines are meant to help you stay or regain your health, in theory, a lot of times they just don’t work.
But drugs are meant to damage your body, always, there is no way about it, never known anyone getting healthier with crystal meth, cocaine, heroine & so on….
Lil’ dunker, as often enough, is right about that!
Some medicines get a recreational popularity, and some needles are used for meds.
But the topic is cannibis for regular use. Cannabis getting attached to ‘harder’ drug use is a PR problem for cannabis advocates.
Caffeine is defined as a drug because it stimulates the central nervous system, causing increased alertness.