Normal folks can easily find the best CBD products at online and offline stores and experience their potential health benefits legally. However, the situation was not very similar for professional athletes until quite recently.
Still, this could never stop professional athletes from using cannabis and its derived products, like CBD gummies or oils. After all, cannabis’ effects on anxiety, stress, sleep, and recovery are quite tremendous.
Seeing the increasing use of cannabis among athletes, its lack of side effects, scientific safety reports, and no correlation with sports performance, the NBA has recently lifted the ban on strict cannabis rules for its players.
Other major sports agencies, like the World Anti-Doping Agency, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and the Ultimate Fighting Championship, have also reverted to their strict stances on CBD and cannabis use in recent years.
In this article, we will cover everything you need to know about these changes by the NBA and how they’re being welcomed globally.
What are the new relaxed cannabis rules by the NBA?
On July 1, 2023, the NBA signed a historic collective bargaining agreement with the National Basketball Players Association. This new agreement will remain active all the way until the 2029–2030 seasons. Under this agreement, two major things have changed. First, marijuana is now removed from the NBA’s banned substance list completely.
Second, basketball players who play in the NBA league can now freely invest their money in cannabis companies that sell CBD products. CBD products are made from industrial hemp, and as per the 2018 farm bill, they are completely legal as long as they don’t have more than 0.3% THC by dry weight.
Players can now endorse and advertise CBD products, as long as they are not from a Marijuana company. If a company sells both marijuana and CBD, then they’ll first need to get permission from the NBA and Players Association.
Under this new seven-year collective bargain, the NBA will now stop randomly testing players for cannabis use. Before this recent policy change, the NBA had a strict level-based approach to punishing players for cannabis use.
If a player tested positive for marijuana for the first time, they had to attend compulsory counseling and treatment programs. On the second positive test, there was a fine of $25,000. On the third positive test, players were suspended for five consecutive game seasons without pay.
Players welcomed this move; there’s actually no correlation between marijuana use and performance enhancement. Plus, cannabis and its derivatives, like CBD products, are becoming legal and popular throughout the nation.
So, it was only natural for the league to go ahead with these changes, and now cannabis is removed from the prohibited substance list and is put in the same category as alcohol.
How have things evolved over the time?
Things began to shift back in 2020 when the NBA cleared that it wouldn’t be testing players for cannabis use temporarily when the post-covid season took off. Though testing for other harmful abuse substances like meth, cocaine, or other opioids continued as usual.
Back then, the NBA commissioner said that the times are quite difficult now; there’s so much happening in society and people are coming out of stressful quarantines. There’s no need to be all strict about cannabis use right now as it’s not harming anyone.
He also said that our society has evolved; people have started to accept cannabis, and it has started to become mainstream now.
So instead of outright banning people, the organization will reach out to people who have dependency issues and will not bother those who only use it casually or occasionally. After this, negotiations continued for years, and finally, they made these changes permanent in 2023.
The majority of professional athletes were always in favor of cannabis legalization in sports. While lobbying for these changes, Kevin Durant (one of the best basketball players of all time) told reporters that NBA officials could always smoke marijuana on him when he walked in. He said that almost every player smokes it, and officials always knew, and it’s as common as wine now.
Retired legends like Al Harrington and J.R. Smith have also lobbied for cannabis legalization. In a 2019 interview, Harrington said that almost 85% of players use or smoke cannabis in some form.
In fact, recreational or medical use of marijuana, CBD, etc. is legal in 73.7% of states that have NBA teams. Rap legend Snoop Dogg has also welcomed this move, saying that it’s just an herb with tonnes of health benefits and will curb the use of nefarious stuff like opioids, pills, and other harmful drugs.
How will this impact players under the WADA code?
Things are different with the World Anti-Doping Agency, as it has removed only “CBD” from its banned substance list. All scientific or natural forms of cannabinoids, except CBD, are completely prohibited.
So THC-carrying marijuana or synthetic cannabinoids that mimic the effects of THC are still banned. So a player who smokes marijuana can definitely play in NBA games but will be banned and penalized if found positive during the Olympics or any other world championships.
Under WADA testing, a player will be flagged if they have even small amounts of THC in their urine sample exceeding 150 ng/ml. The consequences include ineligibility, disqualification, and seizure of medals, prizes, and points.
Our thoughts
To sum it up, CBD and marijuana are becoming more and more mainstream now. The National Basketball Association has recently welcomed this shift by removing cannabis from its controlled substance list.
Similar moves are happening across various sports associations, which now understand the positive effects of CBD for athletes. Under the new rules, NBA players won’t be screened for marijuana now, and they can easily endorse and invest in popular and well-tested CBD brands like Colorado Botanicals.
You can also experience CBD’s healing and therapeutic effects; just try to start with a low dose and buy it from reputable brands.
