NBA Will Not Test Players For Marijuana This Season

Topline

After the league didn’t conduct randomized tests for marijuana inside the ‘bubble campus’ at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, this past summer, the National Basketball Players Association and its player’s union have jointly agreed random testing will remain suspended through the upcoming 2020-21 season, with many pundits predicting it will cease completely in the near future.

Key Facts

Key Background:

On Wednesday, following a recommendation from the World Health Organization, the United Nations’ Commission for Narcotic Drugs voted to remove cannabis from the list of the world’s most dangerous drugs. On Friday afternoon, the United States House of Representatives voted to remove marijuana from the federal schedule of controlled substances. According to the Washington Post, the vote passed by a 228-to-164 margin and marked the first time either chamber of Congress has voted on the issue of federally decriminalizing cannabis.

Crucial Quote: 

“I know these guys play in pain, live in pain, almost as a matter of course,” Roberts says of NBA players. “They don’t want to take a lot of drugs that they could perfectly legally take from their trainers because they’re aware much of that stuff is highly addictive.”

Tangent:

According to Sporting News, within an hour of the initial report that the NBA wouldn’t be testing players for marijuana this season, J.R. Smith (an advocate for the legalization of weed who promoted a cannabis company before Game 4 of the NBA Finals) was trending on Twitter. 

Big Number:

37. The NBA became the first major North American sports league to institute a comprehensive drug program 37 years ago, in 1983.

Further Reading:

UN Removes Marijuana From List Of Most Dangerous Drugs (Forbes)

 NBA won’t conduct random marijuana tests in 2020-21 (ESPN) 

For the NBA’s Union Chief, the Politics of Marijuana Go Beyond the League (GQ)