The NBA didn’t test for marijuana during its coronavirus hiatus. Didn’t test for marijuana in the bubble. Didn’t test for marijuana last season, either.
And won’t randomly test for marijuana this season.
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN:
Players won’t be subject to random tests for marijuana this season, according to @NBPA memo shared w/ players and obtained by ESPN. That’s been adjusted policy thru Orlando restart and 2020-‘21 season. Testing continues for “drugs of abuse and performance enhancing substances.”
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) October 6, 2021
It’s hard to envision the NBA ever randomly testing for marijuana again.
Usage was already fairly common among players. The drug is becoming increasingly legalized in the United States.
As momentum moves one direction both nationally and within the league, the NBA seems unlikely to take what’d now become the drastic step of reimplementing random testing.
In fact, it wouldn’t be surprising if the next Collective Bargaining Agreement doesn’t even include marijuana among prohibited substances. That’d spare players whose marijuana usage or possession is detected in ways other than testing from league punishment. Though the NBA can currently still do targeted testing of players with a previous marijuana violation, a CBA change could treat marijuana like alcohol.
