NBA Says It Will Not Randomly Test Players for Marijuana

The National Basketball Association (NBA) has agreed to not randomly test players for cannabis this season, a continuation of the policy that was put in place last year for the COVID-19 “restart bubble” and has remained since.

Drug testing will continue for things such as performance enhancers, along with drugs such as methamphetamines, cocaine and opiates. But the league’s agreement with the NBA Players Association over random marijuana tests will continue for at least another season.

“We have agreed with the NBPA to extend the suspension of random testing for marijuana for the 2021-22 season and focus our random testing program on performance-enhancing products and drugs of abuse,” said NBA spokesman Mike Bass.

The agreement was revealed to players in a memo from the union, the details of which were first reported by ESPN. The league suspended testing in March 2020 when play was suspended in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, then agreed with the players to test for performance-enhancers in the bubble at Walt Disney World that summer.

But marijuana wasn’t on that list, wasn’t tested for last season and now won’t be this season either.